Electrode surface field and preionization effects on the spatial distribution of arcs in CO2 laser discharges

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Abstract
We have studied the spatial distribution of arcing as a function of electrode spacing and preionization pattern in CO2 laser discharge mixtures, using circular electrodes which allowed a gap of up to 10 cm and a discharge volume of ∼3 liters. We utilized both cathode‐field enhancement with uniform preionization and apertured preionization with uniform field to define the discharge boundaries. In both cases, we found a threshold value of cathode‐field enhancement below which arcing was uniform and confined to the discharge region and above which arcing became highly nonuniform, with arcs localized to the high‐field region.

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