Pulse laser with an electrically excited gaseous active medium

Details Pulse laser with an electrically excited gaseous active medium Pulse laser with an electrically excited gaseous active medium

1979-08-23

1983-01-04

Sikes, William L.

Coherent light generators

Particular active media

Gas

372 83, 372 92, H01S 309

Patent

active

043675530

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application contains subject matter described in my commonly owned copending applications Ser. No. 808,525 filed 21 June 1977, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,600, and Ser. No. 161,387 filed 20 June 1980 as a continuation-in-part of the former.


FIELD OF THE INVENTION

My present invention relates to a pulse laser having a cavity filled with an electrically excited gaseous active medium.


PRIOR ART

To obtain the laser effect in various molecular gas, metal-vapor or excimer active media it is necessary to use pumping methods able to release very high pumping energy within a very short time period (a few nanoseconds). A certain number of pumping methods able to produce such an effect are already known, of which the most widely utilized ones consist of generating electrical discharges with a very large current (from a few tens to a few hundred kA) within the active medium. Such electrical excitation is essentially effected according to two main modes, namely longitudinal gas excitation (which can be effected by means of two electrodes placed at each end of the laser cavity) and transverse gas excitation (which can be effected by means of two electrodes disposed parallel to the optical axis of the cavity).
Various means for longitudinal or transverse excitation have already been developed at the present time, notably devices based on the use of so-called "charge transfer" systems. These "charge transfer" systems, designed to convey to the electrodes the high-voltage electrical pulse which is to trigger the stimulated emission within the laser cavity, are generally constituted by a suitable assembly of conventional capacitors comprising an insulant of low dielectric coefficient (generally Mylar). However, all these conventional "charge transfer" devices give rise to problems of matching the pumping circuit to the gas, reducing the impedance of the discharge circuit and obtaining rise times for the high-voltage pulses which are compatible with the short life of the laser transitions. The methods used at the present time to solve these different problems, and in particular to allow sufficient electrical energy to be stored, lead to the construction of large-dimension devices which have the serious disadvantage of considerable bulk and much reduced maneuverability.


OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to at least partly obviate the aforementioned drawbacks by proposing a so-called "integrated" structure which enables a particularly compact laser to be obtained.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A laser according to my invention comprises a pair of stacked nonconductive blocks of solid material having a high dielectric constant, each block having two flat opposite end faces parallel to and substantially coextensive with those of the other block. A first metallic member is inserted between and in contact with two juxtaposed end faces of these blocks and defines a first capacitor with the first block and with a second metallic member overlying another end face thereof; depending on whether the blocks are prismatic or cylindrical, these two metallic members may be rectangular plates or circular disks substantially coextensive with the adjoining end faces. A third metallic member, which in the embodiments described hereinafter is a wall portion of a metallic housing surrounding the stacked blocks, overlies another end face of the second block and defines with that block and with the first member a second capacitor in cascade with the first one. The housing encloses an elongate cavity, filled with a radiation-emissive gaseous medium, that is bounded in part by a pair of confronting, spaced-apart electrodes formed by respective extensions of the first and third members which are galvanically interconnected by resistive or inductive impedance means. I further provide terminal means, such as a conductive stud insulatedly penetrating a metallic housing cover and contacting the second member spacedly overlain by that cover, for connecting a source of direct curr

REFERENCES:
patent: 4114113 (1978-09-01), Hasson et al.
patent: 4166252 (1979-08-01), Salzmann et al.
patent: 4292600 (1981-09-01), Neracher

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