TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigation of the effects of hydrogen and deuterium on copper vapour laser performance
AU - Withford, Michael J.
AU - Brown, Daniel J. W.
AU - Piper, James A.
PY - 1994/9/1
Y1 - 1994/9/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0028496328&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0030-4018(94)90272-0
DO - 10.1016/0030-4018(94)90272-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0028496328
SN - 0030-4018
VL - 110
SP - 699
EP - 707
JO - Optics Communications
JF - Optics Communications
IS - 5-6
ER -