JPS58119689A - Gas laser tube which is continuously oscillated in lateral direction - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To disperse the discharge and to make the discharge uniform, by using a spiral shaped or ring shaped conductor wire or rod as cathode electrodes. CONSTITUTION:The cathode electrode 8 is rounded in a spiral shape, a ring shape, or a half ring shape, so that resistance against a gas flow 6 is reduced, generation of disturbance is less, the discharge is made uniform, and arcing is suppressed. The cathode electrode 8 is connected to a power source 4 through a stabilizing resistor 3. The discharge is performed between the electrode 8 and an anode electrode 1, and the laser gas is excited. In this method, the discharge is stably performed in a broad range. Therefore, the number of the cathodes 8 can be reduced to the large extent.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser tube using lateral discharge.

In continuous wave molecular gas lasers, the gas is flowed perpendicular to the optical axis in order to cool the laser gas and increase the number of effective molecules for laser action, thereby increasing output. At this time, there are two cases: the discharge is perpendicular to the optical axis and parallel to the gas flow, or the discharge is perpendicular to both. In either case, it is important to uniformly discharge a large area along the optical axis.4For this reason, it is common practice to divide the cathode electrode into a number of bins and attach a stabilizing resistor to each bin.

Conventional lateral discharge molecular gas lasers usually have a configuration as shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 2.

That is, in these figures, l is an anode electrode, and c is a large number of planted bottles, which constitute a cathode electrode. 3 is a stabilizing resistor, which is connected to each bin 2 in series. DA is a power supply, which is connected between the anode electrode l and the binco. j indicates the laser beam, 6 indicates the gas flow, and 7 indicates the envelope.

Figure 1 shows the case where the direction of gas flow and the direction of discharge are the same.
Figure λ shows the case where the discharge direction is perpendicular to the direction of the gas flow between the pipe-shaped 7-node electrode 1 and a large number of bottles 2 arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the paper, and the plate-shaped (pipe-shaped) A discharge occurs between the anode electrode l of the battery (in some cases) and a large number of bins. All of these pins are connected to a power source through a stabilizing resistor 9. The optical axis of the laser is perpendicular to the plane of the paper, and many binos are lined up along this axis. Furthermore, in the case of high output, this becomes multiple rows, reaching up to several 700 lines.

This invention was made in view of the above points, and by using a spiral or ring-shaped conductor wire or zelkova as a cathode electrode, the number of electrodes is reduced, and therefore manufacturing is easy and the stability of discharge is improved. This invention was made for the purpose of providing an excellent lateral discharge continuous wave gas laser tube. This invention will be explained below. FIG. 3 is a side view showing an S4 embodiment of the invention. In these figures, the quad electrode 1 reduces the resistance to the gas flow, reduces the occurrence of turbulence, and makes the discharge uniform.
It is rolled into a spiral, ring, or half-ring shape to prevent arcing. The cathode electrode 1 is connected to a power source through a stabilizing resistor 3. A discharge is generated between the cathode electrode t and the anode electrode l to excite the laser gas. When a large output is required, it is often necessary to enlarge the discharge cross section, but instead of using a series of bottle electrodes, the spiral electrode t according to the present invention is used. In this way, stable discharge can be achieved over a wide range. Therefore, the number of cathode electrodes l can be greatly reduced. Therefore, the number of resistors can be reduced, making manufacturing easier and more economical.Furthermore, multiple spiral electrodes can be used.
If they are arranged in a staggered manner instead of in a straight line, the discharge becomes more uniform and the interaction between them is reduced, making the discharge more stable.

Note that the shape of the anode electrode/side of the cathode electrode l mainly affects the characteristics, so the first II! i! As shown in i7,
Of course, it may be formed into a half-ring shape. This half-ring shape is easier to manufacture if the wire is made thicker at the turn. Although the figure only shows that the cathode electrodes t are tangential from above, it is clear that the uniformity of the discharge will be better if every other electrode is tangential from above and below. .

As explained above, the present invention has an excellent effect of dispersing and uniformizing the discharge by using a spiral, ring or half ring cathode electrode instead of using several rows of bottle electrodes. It is. This has the advantage of reducing the number of cathode electrodes used and making production easier.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 7 and Figure f$2 are cross-sectional views showing a laser tube using a conventional bottle-shaped cathode electrode when the gas flow direction and the discharge direction are parallel and perpendicular, respectively, Figures 3 and 4 ! The figure is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the invention. In the figure, l is an anode electrode, C is a bottle electrode, 3 is a stable resistor, l is a power source, S is a laser beam, ≦ is a gas flow, 7 is an envelope, and t is a cathode electrode.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a lateral discharge continuous wave gas laser tube that generates a discharge between a seven-node electrode and a cathode electrode to perform laser oscillation, the cathode electrode is provided with a conductor wire or rod sown in a spiral or ring shape. A lateral discharge continuous wave gas laser tube.