Investigation of the effects of hydrogen and deuterium on copper vapour laser performance

Michael J. Withford*, Daniel J. W. Brown, James A. Piper

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report a detailed study of the effects on copper vapour laser performance of the addition of small partial pressures of gaseous hydrogen, deuterium and other trace gases to the neon buffer gas. Increases in output power by typically 30% are observed for a small-scale (6 W) device and the spatial characteristics of the output beam are significantly altered. Increased power deposition due to improved impedance matching is shown to be a minor effect. Instead, the changes to output power and the voltage/current characteristics during the excitation pulse and the interpulse period are attributed primarily to enhanced plasma cooling by elastic interactions resulting in reduced prepulse electron densities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)699-707
Number of pages9
JournalOptics Communications
Volume110
Issue number5-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 1994

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