JPH02265289A - Gas laser oscillator device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the uptake of lasing gas by controlling an increase or a decrease of gas supply by gas supply adjusting means on the basis of the amount of discharge power current supplied to an oscillator body or the amount of a discharge current. CONSTITUTION:Greater discharge power is supplied from a power supply device 17 to an oscillator body 11 when a laser output is set greater, whereby deterioration of laser gas in the oscillator body 11 is promoted. Thereupon, a control device 15 controls the device such that gas supply by gas supply adjusting means 18 is increased depending on the discharge power. Accordingly, the laser gas in the oscillator body 11 is exchanged rapidly to prevent the laser output from being lowered. Alternatively, when the laser output is set smaller, the discharge power from the power supply device 17 to the oscillator body 11 is reduced and hence deterioration of the laser gas is also suppressed. Therefore, the control means 15 adjusts the device such that the gas supply by the gas supply adjusting means 18 is decreased. Hereby, the consumption of the laser gas is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a gas laser oscillation device configured to discharge laser gas degraded by discharge.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, gas laser oscillators have been constructed in such a way that one or several types of mixed gases are sealed in the oscillator body at a predetermined pressure, and the laser gas that is sealed is discharged. The laser beam is output by excitation.

By the way, if the laser gas is a mixed gas mainly composed of CO2, the discharge of the laser gas will decompose the CO2 into CO and 0□, so as the discharge continues, the proportion of CO inside the oscillator body will gradually increase and the laser output will increase. This causes a phenomenon of deterioration.

Therefore, it is possible to artificially create a chemical equilibrium state by mixing CO at a predetermined ratio into the laser gas, thereby suppressing large fluctuations in the ratio of CO2 and CO in the laser gas, or The decomposed CO and 0□ are recombined into CO2 by a catalyst to prevent the proportion of CO from increasing. However, even in this case, it is unavoidable that the proportion of CO in the laser gas increases due to continued discharge, so we replace all the enclosed laser gas when the operating time reaches 100 hours from 24 hours. Even the expensive catalysts are replaced regularly. Furthermore, even if such efforts are taken, the reality is that in an oscillator configured with a laser gas sealed inside the oscillator body, the laser output becomes unstable as the oscillator is operated.

In order to deal with this situation, in the past, the laser gas degraded by discharge was exhausted from the oscillator body, and new laser gas with a capacity equivalent to the exhausted laser gas was supplied into the oscillator body. There is a system in which the laser gas is constantly changed by another person, and an example thereof will be explained with reference to FIG.

That is, the oscillator body 1 includes a gas supply device 2 and an exhaust device 3.
is connected, and the laser gas is constantly supplied from the gas supply device 2 to the oscillator body 1.
The laser gas deteriorated by '-L and S is exhausted by an exhaust device 3, and the laser gas in the oscillator main body 1 is replaced one after another. In this case, a pressure sensor 4 is provided in the oscillator body 1, and based on the detection result of the pressure sensor 4, the control device 5 controls the amount of outflow from the exhaust valve 6 provided between the oscillator body 1 and the exhaust device 3. The laser gas inside the oscillator main body 1 is maintained at a predetermined pressure by adjusting the temperature. And electricity? ! :(From device 7 to oscillator body 1
By applying discharge power to the oscillator body 1, the laser gas in the oscillator body 1 is discharged, and a laser beam of a predetermined output is output from the oscillator body 1. At this time, even if the laser gas inside the oscillator main body 1 deteriorates due to discharge, the deteriorated laser gas is sequentially exhausted, so that the laser output is maintained in a stable state.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, the laser gas supplied to the oscillator main body 1 contains He and Ne in a certain proportion in addition to the main CO include. For this reason, with L'+Y configurations that constantly supply a fixed amount of laser gas, as in the conventional example described above, in other words, with large consumption amounts of laser gas, there remains the problem of disadvantages in terms of running costs. .

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances.The purpose of the present invention is to exhaust the degraded laser gas inside the oscillator body, while minimizing the amount of laser gas consumed. To provide a gas laser oscillation device.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a gas supply device for continuously supplying laser gas to an oscillator body, and a gas supply device for continuously supplying laser gas to an oscillator body, and a gas supply device for controlling the outflow amount of the laser gas from the oscillator body. an exhaust device provided to maintain internal gas pressure at a predetermined value; a power source device for providing discharge power to the laser gas within the oscillator body; and A11, which measures the gas pressure inside the oscillator body.
In the gas laser oscillation device, the gas laser oscillator is equipped with a control means for adjusting an outflow amount of the exhaust device based on a result of the determination, further comprising a gas adjustment means for adjusting the amount of laser gas supplied from the gas supply device to the oscillator main body. Then, the control means controls the gas 1! based on the amount of discharge power or discharge current supplied to the oscillator main body. (It is configured to control the increase/decrease in the gas [% supply amount] by the supply amount adjustment means.

(Function) When discharge power is applied to the oscillator main body from the power supply device, the laser gas in the oscillator main body is discharged, and a laser beam corresponding to the emitted 71i 7Ti force is output from the oscillator main body. At this time, even if the laser gas inside the oscillator body deteriorates due to discharge, the deteriorated laser gas is exhausted by the exhaust device, and new laser gas is supplied into the oscillator body from the gas supply device, contributing to the discharge. It becomes like this.

Now, when the laser output is set high, a large discharge power is applied from the power supply to the oscillator main body, which accelerates the deterioration of the laser gas inside the oscillator main body. At this time, the control device supplies gas m5! according to the discharge power. Since the amount of gas supplied by the adjusting means is controlled to be large, the laser gas in the oscillator body is quickly replaced, so that the laser output does not decrease.

Therefore, when the laser output is set to a low value, the discharge power given to the oscillator body from the power supply becomes small, and the degree of deterioration of the laser gas is also reduced, so there is less need to replace the laser gas inside the oscillator body. . At this time, the control means adjusts the gas supply amount by the gas supply amount adjustment means to be smaller based on the fact that the group 71 power is small, so that excessive laser gas is not supplied from the gas supply device to the oscillator main body. do not have.

(Example) Hereinafter, a first example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes an oscillator body, which is of the well-known f7/i configuration and includes a discharge tube, a discharge electrode, a resonator (all not shown), and the like. 12 is a gas supply device, which supplies Co2. Ha and N2 are mixed at a predetermined ratio to generate a laser gas, and the laser gas is supplied to the oscillator main body 11. 13 is an exhaust system, which is
This is for exhausting the laser gas in the oscillator main body 11 and sending it to an exhaust gas treatment device (not shown). 14 is an exhaust valve interposed between the oscillator main body 11 and the exhaust device 13;
This is controlled to open and close by a control device 15 serving as a control means to adjust its displacement. 16 is a pressure sensor provided in the oscillator main body 11, which is
1. A measurement voltage proportional to the constant pressure is applied to the control device 15.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a power supply device that applies discharge power to the discharge electrodes of the oscillator main body 11, and the magnitude of the discharge power is determined based on commands from the control device 15.

Now, 18 is the gas [1, the supply device 12 and the oscillator main body 11
Gas supply amount, which is a gas supply amount adjustment means interposed between 2
! This is a lI valve, in which the gas passage port is adjusted by 11M by the control device 15.

When the laser output is set, the control device 15 controls the laser output from the oscillator main body 11 to the set output by adjusting the discharge power of the 7-heat source device 17 based on the set value. Further, the control device 15 controls the gas pressure within the oscillator main body 11 to a predetermined pressure by adjusting the throttle of the exhaust valve 14 by 1 based on the measurement result of the pressure sensor 16.

Further, the control device 15 adjusts the amount of gas supplied from the gas supply device 12 to the oscillator main body 11 by adjusting the gas supply amount and the current regulating valve 18 based on the set laser output.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

After setting the laser output to the control device 15, operation is started. Then, the gas supply device 12 supplies CO2°He and Ne.
are mixed at a predetermined ratio to generate a laser gas, and the laser gas is supplied to the oscillator main body 11 via the gas supply ffi adjustment valve 18. Then, the gas pressure within the oscillator main body 11 gradually increases, and the measured voltage from the pressure sensor 16 also gradually increases accordingly. And the oscillator main body 11
When the gas pressure inside reaches the predetermined pressure, the pressure sensor]6
Since the measured voltage from θ11 also becomes the set voltage,
5 opens the first air valve 14, which causes the laser gas inside the oscillator main body 11 to be evacuated and the gas pressure to be reduced. Further, when the gas pressure in the oscillator main body 11 drops below a predetermined pressure due to the opening of the exhaust valve 14, the control device 15 closes the exhaust valve 14 based on the measured voltage from the pressure sensor 16, and thereby the oscillator main body The gas pressure in 11 becomes J: t+'. Therefore, by opening and closing the IJI gas valve 14 by the control device 15, a predetermined amount of laser gas is constantly supplied into the oscillator main body 11, and the internal gas pressure is maintained at a predetermined pressure.

Now, while the gas pressure inside the oscillator main body 11 is maintained at a predetermined pressure as described above, the control device 15 outputs discharge power corresponding to the laser output set to the power supply device]7. command. Then, the power supply device 17
A discharge power of a magnitude based on a command from the control device 15 is outputted, and in response to this, the laser gas in the oscillator main body 11 is discharged to output a laser beam of a set output. At this time,
Since CO2 contained in the laser gas in the oscillator main body 11 is decomposed into CO and 0□, the proportion of CO contained in the laser gas increases with discharge.

However, as mentioned above, since the laser gas in the oscillator main body 11 is replaced at predetermined intervals, the laser gas deteriorated by the radiation 715 does not stay in the oscillator main body 11 for a long time, and as a result, the laser output will not decrease due to degraded laser gas.

By the way, in [/-ZAGAS, which is mainly composed of CO2, when it is strongly discharged, the proportion of CO increases, but when it is weakly discharged, the proportion decreases. Therefore, if a constant amount of laser gas is always supplied into the oscillator main body 11 regardless of the magnitude of the discharge intensity,
If the intensity of the laser output is low, the expensive laser gas that could be used will be wasted. However, the control device 15 controls the oscillator main body 11 from the gas supply device 12 according to the laser output. +, The amount of laser gas supplied is adjusted to deal with the problem that laser gas is wasted and exhausted after 1゛λ.

In other words, when the control device 15 instructs the power supply device 17 to output a large amount of discharge power, the control device 15 increases the opening amount of the gas supply amount adjustment valve 18 to increase the amount of gas 1.
1 When the amount of laser gas supplied from the supply device 12 to the oscillator main body 11 is increased and the discharge power is instructed to be output small, the gas supply m + i, ', l valve adjustment 18
By reducing the amount of opening of The degree of deterioration of the laser gas is also large, and as a result, approximately 60 g/min of laser gas must be supplied to the oscillation book body 11.

On the other hand, when the laser output is at zero level or near zero level (discharge is maintained at this time as well), the equation 17
It is sufficient to supply laser gas of about m1n. In other words, there is a proportional relationship between the set laser output and the laser gas required at the time of the laser output.
As shown in the figure. At this time, since the laser output is proportional to the discharge power from the power supply device 7, the control device 15 controls the gas supply amount adjustment valve]8 based on the output command to the power supply device]7.
By controlling this, it is possible to supply the oscillator main body 11 with a suitable amount of laser gas based on the S-L relationship as shown in FIG.

In short, according to the above configuration, the control device 15 adjusts the opening amount of the gas supply amount regulating valve 18 based on the intensity of the discharge power commanded to the power supply device 17. Since the amount of gas supplied from the supply device 12 to the oscillation 2 = main body 11 is adjusted in response to It is possible to prevent the inconvenience of wastefully exhausting the usable laser gas in the main body 11.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the same parts as those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals and explanations are omitted, and only the different parts will be explained.

That is, there is a gap between the gas supply device 12 and the oscillator main body 11.
:Gone gas 1! (The supply HX adjustment valve 19 is
There are two routes to the iJ-capable valve. In this case, the control device 15 controls one path of the gas (7% feed rate 1 step adjustment valve 19).
Or by adjusting the routes of both flow paths as appropriate.
The amount of laser gas co-supplied from the gas supply device 12 to the oscillator main body 11 can be adjusted with high accuracy and responsiveness.

Note that in each of the above embodiments, the control device 15 is connected to the power supply device 17.
Although the gas supply amount adjustment valve 18 is configured to adjust the gas supply amount based on the command to switch to 1/1, that is, the bk electric power, instead of this, the control device 15 adjusts the gas supply amount based on the discharge current. It may be configured to adjust the amount of gas supplied by the mouth adjustment valve 18. Furthermore, instead of the gas supply amount adjustment valve that can continuously adjust the flow rate, it is recommended to use one that can be switched between a fully open state and a fully open state as appropriate under the control of the control device 15. You may also do so.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the gas laser oscillation device of the present invention, 11 (gas supply 2, 2!J for adjusting the supply amount) of the laser gas from the gas supply device to the oscillator body.
The control means is configured to control an increase or decrease in the amount of gas supplied by the gas supply r:L adjustment means based on the magnitude of the discharge current or the discharge current supplied to the oscillator main body. Therefore, although the oscillator is configured to exhaust degraded laser gas within the oscillator body, it has the excellent effect of suppressing the amount of laser gas consumed as much as possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between laser gas supply amount and laser output, and FIG. 3 is a diagram equivalent to FIG. 1 showing a second embodiment of the present invention. . FIG. 4 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional example. In the figure, 11 is the oscillator main body, 12 is the gas supply device, 13 is the exhaust device, ] 5 is the control device (control means), 17 is the power supply device, 18.19 is the gas supply adjustment valve (gas supply amount adjustment means) It is.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. a gas supply device for continuously supplying laser gas to the oscillator body; an exhaust device provided to maintain the internal gas pressure at a predetermined value by adjusting the amount of laser gas flowing out from the oscillator body; and the oscillator body. A gas laser oscillation device comprising: a power supply device for applying discharge power to laser gas within the main body; and a control means for measuring gas pressure inside the oscillator main body and adjusting an outflow amount by the exhaust device based on the measurement result. , further comprising a gas supply amount adjusting means for adjusting the amount of laser gas supplied from the gas supply device to the oscillator main body, and the control means is configured to adjust the amount of laser gas supplied from the gas supply device to the oscillator main body based on the magnitude of the discharge power amount or the discharge current supplied to the oscillator main body. A gas laser oscillation device characterized in that the gas laser oscillation device is configured to control an increase/decrease in the amount of gas supplied by a gas supply amount adjusting means.