Gas laser

Abstract

A gas laser outputs a prescribed high power from the start of laser oscillation immediately after the laser gas is changed. The laser, in which used laser gas in a laser chamber (1) is replaced with a fresh laser gas, is provided with: a gas leaving means, which leaves a prescribed amount of used gas for mixing with the fresh laser gas during laser gas replacement, or an impurity gas adding means which provides a prescribed amount of impurity gas for mixing with the fresh laser gas; and a controller (11). It is preferable that the concentration of the used gas after a replacement is within a range of 1.5-60%. The gas leaving means can be a gas discharge control mechanism (10), which controls the amount of used gas exhausted so that a prescribed amount of used gas can be left for mixing with the fresh gas, or a laser gas container (21), which can provide a prescribed amount of stored used gas for mixing with the fresh gas. The impurity gas adding means can be a laser gas cylinder containing a prescribed concentration of impurity gas or an impurity gas container (44).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.