A 100 kW, 10 kHZ PRF, Line Type Pulser For Gas Laser Pumping

D. W. McDonald; C. R. Chatwin; B. F. Scott

doi:10.1117/12.951342

10 April 1989 A 100 kW, 10 kHZ PRF, Line Type Pulser For Gas Laser Pumping

D. W. McDonald, C. R. Chatwin, B. F. Scott

Proceedings Volume 1046, Pulse Power for Lasers II; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.951342
Event: OE/LASE '89, 1989, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

In continuous wave operation gas lasers operate at mean powers in the multi-kilowatt range and offer high processing rates. But intensities generated at the workpiece are below the damage threshold of many materials employed routinely in the manufacture of engineering components and of metals specifically. It has been found under pulse irradiation at 10μm, that many of the refractory metals exhibit a dramatic increase in the absorption of the incident flux, if the material is raised to a sufficiently high temperature. The absorbed power intensities in the range 1010 - 1011 W/m2 required to induce this high absorption, high reaction pressure heating regime, can be generated by the CO2:N2 system with proper choice of electrical input pulse and gas mixture composition. A high pulse repetition frequency CO2 laser source has been built to investigate the utility of the enhanced absorption technique: the ability to process alloys of copper and aluminium and the refractory metals being the prime objective. This paper describes some of the design and development aspects of a high frequency pulsed power source for this laser system.

Citation Download Citation

D. W. McDonald, C. R. Chatwin, and B. F. Scott "A 100 kW, 10 kHZ PRF, Line Type Pulser For Gas Laser Pumping", Proc. SPIE 1046, Pulse Power for Lasers II, (10 April 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.951342

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