Experimental and theoretical investigation of a traveling wave excited TEA nitrogen laser

Abstract

We have studied the capacitor transfer type of flat-plate-transmission-line traveling wave excited atmospheric pressure nitrogen laser. Experiments were carried over a wide variety of parameters such as charging voltage, separation and angle of electrodes, capacitance of bank, inductance of switching circuit, and geometrical parameters of resonators. The theory is based upon the macroscopic properties of nitrogen discharges. Laser pulses were calculated by solving numerically the space-dependent rate equations for population and photon number densities. The theoretical predictions are in very good agreement with the experimental observations.