In phase coupled strip waveguide CO.sub.2 laser
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorYongfang Zhang
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Abstract
An in-phase coupled strip linear CO.sub.2 waveguide laser includes an upper aluminum plate and an aluminum waveguide bed including parallel ridges, each in the range of about 2 to about 5 mm wide, at a gap of about 0.5 to 2 mm from the upper plate. The slots are about 2 mm deep to prevent discharge therein and about 1 mm wide. The width of the slots is selected to permit coupling between the discharge channels formed between each ridge and the upper plate while separating the discharge beams in each channel. Discharge in each channel is in-phase coupled in the fundamental mode to produce a single lobe far field with a simple Fabry-Perot resonator.
Claims13
A coupled waveguide laser, comprising:
- an upper plate;
- a waveguide bed;
- a series of parallel ridges in said waveguide bed;
- lasing means for forming and pumping a lasing cavity between said plate and the waveguide bed ridges;
- and
- slot means between each of said ridges for forming separate, in-phase coupled lasing channels between the upper plate and each said ridge.
A method of reducing power density in a laser, comprising;
- causing lasing discharge between a series of ridges and an upper plate in a laser cavity;
- and
- in-phase coupling said lasing discharges with a slot between each pair of ridges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.