Life test of a sealed‐off CO2 laser with SnO2 coated cathodes |
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| Authors: | Kaung‐Hsiung Wu |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Electrophysics , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30039, R.O.C. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract A sealed‐off CO2 laser with an intracavity structure and dual discharge sections has been built to test its lifetime under different treatments of cathodes. The output characteristics of this laser system, under different discharge conditions, have also been investigated. Several techniques, such as the sealing of optical components on a laser tube, the coating of tin‐oxide (SnO2) on stainless steel cathodes, and the making of a discharge tube of three layers, are established to construct this tube. By using SnO2 coated SUS 304 cathodes and a gas mixture of CO2:N2:He:Xe:H2= 15:14:65:4:2 in this laser tube, an operational lifetime in excess of 1,800 hours and an output power up to 52W/m are obtained. |
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| Keywords: | sealed‐off CO2 laser intracavity tin‐oxide cathode life test |
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