Comparative investigation on the output characteristics and electrical parameters of the UV Cu+ Ne-CuBr laser excited by the Blumlein and IC excitation schemes

ABSTRACT A comparative investigation on the output characteristics and the electrical parameters of the UV Cu Ne-CuBr laserexcited by the Blumlein and IC excitation schemes is reported. An optimization of the UV multiline average output power with respect to the discharge conditions is carried out for both excitation schemes. It is obtained that the use of theIC excitation scheme leads to a 30 % increase of the average output power at a simultaneous lasing on the five Cu lines - 248.6, 252.9, 259.7, 260.0 and 270.3 nm, in comparison with the Blumlein scheme. A two-longitudinal-mode oscillation (TEM00 and TEM10) is obtained on the 248.6-nm Cu laser line with an average output power of 25 mW.When a Ne/He gas mixture (He pressure - 8 Torr and total pressure - 2 1 .7 Torr) is used, a simultaneous laser oscillationon the 248.6-nm and 780. 1-nm Cu laser lines is also obtained with equal average laser powers of about 30 mW.Keywords: Metal vapor laser; Excitation Scheme, Copper bromine laser; UV copper ion laser