Compact sealed TEA CO<inf>2</inf>lasers with corona-discharge preionization

Abstract

Optimization of the performance of compact sealed TEA CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> lasers employing a novel version of the corona-discharge preionization scheme is reported. Performance with high oxygen concentrations, long-life operation with organic additives, limits of arc-free operation with gas mixtures without helium, and in the presence of high CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> concentrations have been investigated. Our results show that devices whose construction is considerably simplified by employing this preionization technique are capable of producing performance superior to more complex systems.