JPS6326558B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement in the discharge start of an air-cooled gas laser device.

In general, rare gas lasers using argon as an active medium have come to be widely used as light sources for film exposure and color scanners as gas lasers that can produce large output even in the visible range. However, rare gas ion lasers have very low efficiency and must be injected with enough power to perform well in these applications, requiring intense cooling. In rare gas ion lasers, laser oscillation is performed by utilizing the transition between the energy levels of rare gas ions produced by passing a current of several tens of amperes through the thin tube portion of the laser tube. At this time, in the laser tube section, heat generation of several 100 W to several KW occurs due to loss when the rare gas ions inside the tube collide with the tube wall. Therefore, in order to remove this heat, the thin tube section is normally cooled directly with water, or, in small tubes, strong air cooling is performed. The material of the laser tube is often Beryllium porcelain, which can withstand intense ion bombardment and is highly efficient in transferring large amounts of heat generation to the external cooling medium, cooling water, and air cooling fins.
In the case of a small air-cooled argon laser, in order to air-cool the beryllia porcelain thin tube, there is generally a method of cooling the beryllia thin tube by sandwiching it with an aluminum block, or recently, a method is used in which fins are directly metallized and brazed onto the beryllia porcelain. method is taken.

On the other hand, most of the methods used to start the discharge in this laser tube utilize non-polar discharge, but these methods have the disadvantage that the discharge does not run through the narrow laser tube, or that it is difficult to discharge.

An object of the present invention is to improve such drawbacks and provide a gas laser device with a good discharge start.

Next, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a general air-cooled gas laser device. In Figure 1, 2 is the laser tube, 3 is the spark gap that generates high voltage, 4 is the coil that generates high voltage, 5 is the thyristor, 6 is the gate signal circuit of the thyristor,
7 represents a capacitor, and 8 represents a resistor. In this configuration, electric charges are charged by the DC power supply 1 into the capacitor 7 through the resistor 8.

On the other hand, by firing the thyristor 5 in response to a signal from the gate signal circuit 6, the charge in the capacitor 7 is discharged through the coil 4. When a current flows through the primary side of the coil 4, a high voltage is generated in the coil 4', which passes through the spark gap 3 and generates a high voltage of high frequency damped vibration in the coil 4''.This high voltage is applied to the anode of the laser tube 4, and the laser is activated. The tube 4 discharges.The above is an outline of the operation of the gas laser device.
Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the laser tube. In FIG. 2, 9 is a laser tube anode, 1
0 is a beryllia tube cooling fin, and 11 is a beryllia tube. In this configuration, the anode 9 and the cooling fins 10 are electrically connected. This method includes a method in which the anode 9 and the cooling fin 10 are directly connected with a lead wire, and a method in which the beryllia thin tube 11 is metallized and the anode 9 and the cooling fin 10 are connected. The figure shows the method of metallization.

By adopting the above configuration, a high voltage at the time of starting is also applied to the beryllia porcelain of the laser thin tube, and the electric field strength in the thin tube portion becomes strong, making it easier for discharge to pass through the beryllia thin tube. Therefore, it is possible to provide a gas laser device that is easy to discharge.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a circuit diagram of a gas laser device, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a laser tube showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1... DC power supply, 2... Laser tube, 3... Spark gap, 4... Coil, 5... Thyristor, 6... Gate signal circuit, 7... Capacitor,
8...Resistor, 9...Laser tube anode, 10...
Cooling fins, 11...Beryllia tubules.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A gas laser device having an ion laser tube using beryllia porcelain as the laser tube and a laser power source for discharging the laser tube, characterized in that a heat dissipation fin for cooling the beryllia porcelain tube is electrically connected to the laser tube anode electrode. gas laser equipment.