Peculiarities of pumping of copper vapour and copper bromide vapour lasers

Lasing and peculiarities of pumping of a copper vapour laser with a commercially produced 'Crystal' LT-40Cu active element and of a CuBr laser with a large-volume experimental active element are studied experimentally. It is shown that the efficiency of lasers with an average radiation power up to 50 W relative to the energy supplied to the active medium during useful pumping achieves 4%. It is found that the stage of useful pumping of the central part of the laser tube is preceded by a partial breakdown of the discharge gap and the charging of parasitic capacitances. A distinguishing feature of the pumping of a CuBr laser as compared to the Cu laser is that the inductance of the leads from the pump oscillator to the active element and the inductance of the pump oscillator can be increased, while the average radiation power remains unchanged.