Abstract

High-power white lasers have a lot of scientific and technical applications. Usually they are represented by ion lasers with argon-krypton mixture because they have a set of the strongest laser lines suitable for these purposes (488, 514 nm – Ar⁺ and 647 nm – Kr⁺). The efficiency of gas-mix lasers is substantially lower (by a factor of 3-4) than in pure gas lasers. The general reason is different influence of discharge on axial and radial distributions of each plasma component. This and some other phenomena (e.g., difference in ionization energies) don't permit achievement of optimal generation conditions for each gas in the entire volume of active medium. Besides, the electron temperature of argon plasma drops as krypton is added. To solve some of the problems opportunities of open-flow discharge have been applied.

© 1994 IEEE