Abstract

The subject of the present investigation is the influence of the special additives to the mixture of CO₂ and N₂O lasers as well as the influence of electrode roughness on the fall of the volume self-sustained discharge (VSD) stability. The maximum time of the VSD stability was 12 µs for CO₂lasers and 3.5 µs for N₂O lasers. That is sufficient to pump discharge a unit with a 1 m³ volume. The kinetics of the low temperature plasma process and dynamics of spark channel growing have been investigated by intracavity laser spectroscopy and high speed photography.

© 1992 Optical Society of America