CO2 large-area discharge laser using an unstable-waveguide hybrid resonator

• DOI: 10.1063/1.101203
• Publication Date: 2002-07-26T12:51:02Z
• Authors: P. E. Jackson; H. J. Baker; D. R. Hall
• Keywords: Waveguide; Slab; Optical cavity

A one-dimensional unstable resonator combining free-space and waveguide propagation is used to efficiently extract power from a large-area gain medium in slab CO2 laser. of 240 W near-diffraction-limited beam has been attained at 12% conversion efficiency 38 cm length compact sealed-off laser head, corresponding specific extraction 14 kW m−2 discharge area.