JPH07122798A - Preparatory discharge method of discharge excitation laser oscillator, and discharge excitation laser oscillator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restrain a discharge excitation laser oscillator from increasing in electrode voltage at its restarting without complicating it in system by a method wherein a discharge minimum electric power is applied to one of split laser outputting discharge electrodes or alternately applied to split laser outputting discharge electrodes. CONSTITUTION:Cathode electrodes 3 and anode electrodes 5 divided in parallel into three pieces respectively are arranged on the crosswise sides of a laser gas discharge excitation space 1, and an electric power is separately applied to pairs of electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, and 3c and 5c from power supplies 11a, 11b, and 11c. The power supplies 11a, 11b, and 11c are connected to a control device 13 in common. The control device 13 includes a preliminary discharge control mode other than a laser output control mode, and a discharge minimum electric power is supplied to one of the pairs of electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, and 3c and 5c or alternately supplied to the pairs of electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, and 3c and 5c by turning one of the power supplies 11a, 11b, and 11c on or alternately turning the power supplies 11a, 11b, and 11c on. Thus, a discharge excitation laser oscillator of this constitution can be kept in a preliminary discharge mode of no laser output without growing complicated in system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pre-discharge method for a discharge excitation laser oscillator and a discharge excitation laser oscillator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Discharge-excited oscillators for gas lasers that excite a laser gas in a discharge excitation space by a discharge by a discharge electrode to output a laser are well known.

In the conventional discharge-excited laser oscillator, even if the electric power supplied to the discharge electrode is reduced to the minimum electric power for discharge, the laser output is generated. It is necessary to completely stop the supply of.

[0004]

In the discharge excitation type laser oscillator, when the supply of electric power to the discharge electrodes is completely stopped and the discharge electrode is once put into a non-discharge idle state for a predetermined time or longer, the subsequent re-excitation is performed. At the time of output, when electric power for laser output is suddenly supplied to the discharge electrode, a voltage higher than usual is applied between the electrodes, which causes inconvenience such as extra-electrode discharge.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to the above-mentioned problems in the conventional discharge excitation type laser oscillator, and it is possible to increase the electrode voltage at the time of re-output without making the system complicated. An object of the present invention is to provide a pre-discharge method for a discharge excitation type laser oscillator to be avoided and a discharge excitation type laser oscillator used for implementing this control method.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a discharge electrode for laser output is divided into a plurality of discharge electrodes, and one of the divided discharge electrodes or the discharge minimum power is supplied alternately. And a non-output pre-discharge state is obtained by the pre-discharge method of the discharge excitation laser oscillator.

Further, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the discharge excitation type laser oscillator according to the present invention has a plurality of divided discharge electrodes for laser output and an electric power to each of the plurality of discharge electrodes. A power supply unit for supplying power, and a control unit for individually controlling the power supply to each discharge electrode by the power supply unit, including a preliminary discharge control mode for supplying the discharge minimum power to one of the discharge electrodes or alternately. It is characterized by being.

[0008]

According to the above-described structure, the discharge minimum power is supplied to one of the plurality of discharge electrodes for laser output or alternately, so that a non-output preliminary discharge state is obtained and At the time of output, the electrode voltage does not soar.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a discharge excitation type laser oscillator according to the present invention.

The discharge excitation type laser oscillator includes a cathode electrode 3 and an anode electrode 5 which are vertically opposed to each other on both sides of a discharge excitation space 1 of a laser gas as a laser medium, and both sides of the discharge excitation space 1. The output mirror 9 and the folding mirror 7 are arranged to face each other in the left-right direction, and the laser is output in the direction of arrow A.

A plurality of cathode electrodes 3 and anode electrodes 5, in this embodiment, discharge electrodes 3a, 3b, 3c and discharge electrodes 5a, 5b, 5c, are divided in parallel into three pieces, each of which is individually discharged. To act.

Discharge electrodes 3a, 3b and 3c are respectively connected to individual power supply devices 11a, 11b and 11c, and the power supply devices 11a, 11b and 11c cause discharge electrodes 3a and 5a, respectively.
Electric power is individually supplied to each of 3b and 5b, 3c and 5c.

The power supply devices 11a, 11b and 11c are connected to a common control device 13. At the time of laser output, the control device 13 inputs the control target value of the optical power from a control target value input unit (not shown), inputs the measured value of the optical power from the optical power meter 15, and uses the feedback control method to
The amount of power supplied to each discharge electrode by the power supply devices 11a, 11b, 11c is quantitatively controlled. The optical power meter 15 receives a part of the output laser from the half mirror 17 and measures the optical power.

The control device 13 includes a preliminary discharge control mode in addition to the laser output control mode as described above. In the preliminary discharge control mode, the power supply devices 11a, 11 are provided.
b, 11c or one of them is alternately turned on to form discharge electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, 3c and 5c.
One of the two or alternately supplies the minimum discharge power.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the minimum discharge power supply pattern in this preliminary discharge control mode is as follows.
As shown in FIG. 2 (b), a pattern in which only one of the power supply devices 11a, 11b, and 11c is alternately turned on to obtain a continuous voltage application state, and the power supply device 1
1a, 11b, 11c, for example, a pattern in which only the power supply device 11a is continuously turned on to obtain a continuous voltage application state, and as shown in FIG. 2C, the power supply devices 11a, 11b , 11c are sequentially turned on for a short period of time to obtain an intermittent voltage application state in which the total discharge-free time does not exceed a predetermined time, and FIG. As described above, the power supply device 11a,
There is a pattern in which only one of 11b and 11c, for example, the power supply device 11a is intermittently turned on to obtain an intermittent voltage application state in which the non-discharge time does not exceed a predetermined time.

As described above, in the preliminary discharge control mode,
By supplying the discharge minimum power to one of the discharge electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, 3c and 5c or alternately, a non-output preliminary discharge state without laser output can be obtained.

Thus, even when the laser output voltage is suddenly applied to the discharge electrodes 3a and 5a, 3b and 5b, 3c and 5c during laser output, the electrode voltage does not excessively rise.

In the above, the present invention has been described in detail with respect to a specific embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various embodiments are possible within the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0020]

As can be understood from the above description, according to the pre-discharge method of the discharge excitation type laser oscillator and the discharge excitation type laser oscillator according to the present invention, one of the plurality of divided discharge electrodes for laser output is provided. By supplying the minimum discharge power alternately or alternately, a pre-discharge state with no output can be obtained without complicating the system, and even if a laser output voltage is suddenly applied to the discharge electrode during re-output, The voltage does not soar, and the occurrence of an inconvenient discharge phenomenon such as extra-electrode discharge due to the soaring electrode voltage is avoided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a discharge excitation type laser oscillator according to the present invention.

2A to 2D are time charts each showing a power supply pattern in the discharge excitation laser oscillator according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Discharge excitation space 3 Cathode electrode 3a, 3b, 3c Discharge electrode 5 Anode electrode 5a, 5b, 5c Discharge electrode 11a, 11b, 11c Power supply device 13 Control device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A discharge characterized in that a discharge electrode for laser output is divided into a plurality of pieces, and a discharge minimum power is supplied to one of the divided discharge electrodes or alternately to obtain a non-output preliminary discharge state. Pre-discharge method for pumped laser oscillator. 2. A discharge electrode for laser output divided into a plurality of parts, a power supply unit for individually supplying electric power to each of the plurality of discharge electrodes, and a discharge minimum to one of the discharge electrodes or alternately. A discharge excitation laser oscillator, comprising: a control unit that individually controls the power supplied to each discharge electrode by the power supply unit, including a preliminary discharge control mode for supplying power.