Multisection copper vapor laser

An investigation was made into the time spread of the electric discharge parameters in different sections of a multisection transverse-discharge copper vapor laser, and its influence on the laser output power was studied. Methods were devised for improving the synchronization of discharge development in the sections. The times for the volume deexcitation of the copper metastable levels were estimated (~50 and 15 μ sec for the green and yellow lines at a neon pressure of ~1atm). An average laser output power of ~100W was achieved at a pulse repetition frequency of 3 kHz. A master-oscillator-amplifier system was investigated and it was found that superradiance losses in the lasing regime did not exceed 20–30%. The average saturating signal power was 20 mW/cm².