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High-efficiency high-optical-quality transverse-flow CO 2 laser

1998; SPIE; Volume: 3574; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.334423

1996-756X

I. Guţu, R. Medianu, Geo Georgescu, C. Petre, I. N. Mihãilescu, Kōichi Kasuya,

Laser Design and Applications

We developed and experimented a method for obtaining a transverse flow CO 2 laser-TFL- with a matching coefficient (the cross section of the laser beam/the cross section of the electrical discharge) -(eta) m greater than 0.8 for a Fresnel number of the optical resonator -N F less than 2, in which both types of the active medium asymmetries are compensated. This corresponds to a TFL with high efficiency and TEM 00/01 good optical quality laser beam. The main elements for this laser are: gas circulation fluido-dynamical circuit in cylindrical geometry with two opposite electrical discharges; U-type laser resonator with a 90 degree deflection element (pentaprism alike), instead of one corner mirror, which reverse the wavefront of the laser beam in one of the two discharge channels. Also, it was developed a new very stable 90 degree-beam deflection optical element with properties alike pentaprism. This element might be used in optical resonator construction, transport and focusing systems of the laser beam.