Short-pulse CO₂ laser with longitudinal tandem discharge tube

We developed a longitudinally excited CO2 laser with a tandem discharge tube. The tandem scheme was constituted of two 30-cm long discharge tubes connected with an intermediate electrode. Two parts, each consisting of a charged capacitance and a 30-cm long discharge tube, were electrically connected in parallel and switched by a spark gap. The tandem scheme produced a short laser pulse like that of a TEA-CO2 laser with a charging voltage of -24.8 kV, which was smaller than the -40.0 kV charging voltage of our previous CO2 laser. At a gas pressure of 3.8 kPa, the spike pulse width was 145 ns, the pulse tail length was 58.8 μs, the output energy was 52.0 mJ, and the spike pulse energy was 2.4 mJ. We also investigated the dependence of the laser pulse and the discharge voltage on gas pressure.