Abstract
A cw CO2 laser excited by a silent discharge, i.e., an ac electric discharge over a dielectric layer, has been developed. Discharges over dielectrics have been reported so far to be used as an auxiliary means in pulse and cw lasers. We report the first trial to realize a cw laser excited solely by the silent discharge. The silent discharge1 is composed of pulsating columnar discharges dispersed throughout the gap volume. The energy of each pulsating discharge is limited by the dielectric layer. Hence arc-free discharge is assured without energy loss.
© 1981 Optical Society of America
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