RU2410810C2 - Multichannel electric-discharge laser with diffusion cooling of gas mixture - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: physics, optics.

SUBSTANCE: laser has a hermetic housing, an optical resonator, gas discharge tubes, a cooling system with liquid pumping inside the housing for cooling outer surfaces of the gas discharge tubes, a system for pumping the gas mixture inside the gas discharge tubes, a power supply and an electrode system for exciting glow discharge in the gas discharge tubes. The resonator has an optical bench on which a rear totally reflecting mirror is mounted at the beginning of the path of the laser radiation and a front exit mirror, as well as rotating mirrors of mirror prisms lying at the ends of the surface of the packet of gas discharge tubes, covering their ends. The gas discharge tubes are arranged in form of a packet inside the housing. Inside the packet, the tubes are arranged in two rows equidistant from each other. Transfer of radiation from tubes in one row to tubes in the other row is provided by two rotating mirrors of the mirror prism lying at an angle 90° relative each other. Transfer of radiation between tubes in a row is realised with four rotating mirrors of mirror prisms, the plane of the bisectrix angles of intersection of which are displaced from each other. Input of laser radiation is provided on all gas discharge tubes, starting with the tube lying opposite the rear totally reflecting mirror, and ending with the tube which is last on the path of the laser radiation and lying opposite the front exit mirror.

EFFECT: high radiation power.

2 dwg

Description

The present invention relates to the field of laser technology, and more specifically to electric-discharge multichannel lasers with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture.

Known electric-discharge multichannel lasers with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture include a sealed enclosure, rods and end plates of the resonator integrated into an optical bench, the covers being hermetically connected to the enclosure, gas-discharge tubes located in the form of a packet inside the enclosure and inserted into the openings of the optical plates benches, a cooling system with fluid pumping inside the housing for cooling the external surfaces of discharge tubes, two covers hermetically attached to the end plates m, a gas mixture pumping system inside gas discharge tubes, a power source and an electrode system for supplying high voltage to gas discharge tubes and generating a glow discharge in them, a radiation output unit located on one of the covers, an optical resonator, which is an optical bench mounted on it rear deaf mirror at the beginning of the course of laser radiation, as well as corner mirror prisms located at the ends of each pair of gas discharge tubes, providing a rotation direction of the emerging radiation from each gas discharge tube through an angle of 180 ° and a sequential bypass of laser radiation in all gas discharge tubes from the rear blind mirror to the radiation output unit [1, 2].

The main design drawback of these lasers is that with a large number of gas discharge pipes, the mirror alignment system becomes much more complicated due to their large number corresponding to the number of gas discharge pipes and the small size due to the transverse size of the gas discharge pipes.

Also known is an electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture, which includes all of the above elements, and the gas-discharge tubes in the packet are arranged in equal rows at an equal distance from each other, and the optical elements of the resonator are a rear blind mirror at the beginning of the course of laser radiation, mounted parallel to the axes of the discharge tubes, a radiation output unit, as well as two corner mirror prisms mounted near both end surfaces of the discharge package pipes and their ends completely overlapping, and the planes of the bisectors of the intersection angles of the mirrors in the corner mirror prisms are perpendicular to the planes of the ends of the package of gas discharge tubes and are parallel offset from each other by a distance equal to half the distance between the gas discharge tubes, which ensures rotation of the laser radiation by an angle of 180 °, introducing it into the subsequent symmetrically located discharge tube and the sequential passage of laser radiation through all discharge tubes from the rear blind mirror d about the node output radiation [3]. In this laser, with a sufficiently large number of gas discharge tubes in the package, the design of the rotary and adjustment units is simplified, since For all gas discharge tubes, angle mirror prisms are common.

This laser is the closest technical solution to the claimed, i.e. prototype.

The disadvantage of the prototype is the large dimensions of the design with a large number of discharge tubes in the package, which is necessary to increase the output power of the laser, as well as reducing the output power of the laser radiation when transmitting radiation from pipes to pipes located at a considerable distance from each other due to diffraction losses due to the divergence in the waveguide mode of the laser.

The inventive laser housing is made of dielectric material and has a closed cross section, for example a cylinder, square or rectangle, gas discharge tubes inside the housing are arranged in two rows along one of the symmetry axes of the X or Y section at the same distance from each other. The objectives of the invention are to increase power and improve the quality of laser radiation, as well as reducing the size of the structure. The above tasks in the presented electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture are solved by the fact that the gas-discharge tubes in the packet are arranged in two rows, and the radiation is transferred from the pipes of one row to the pipes of the other row by two mirrors located at an angle of 90 ° relative to each other in the YY plane, which ensures minimal power loss. The radiation is transferred from pipes to pipes in rows by four mirrors located at an angle of 90 ° relative to each other in the Х-Х plane, which ensures rotation of the laser radiation by an angle of 180 °, its introduction into a subsequent symmetrically located gas-discharge tube, and sequential passage of laser radiation through all gas-discharge pipes from the rear blind mirror to the radiation output unit (Fig. 2), while sequentially transmitting laser radiation through all gas-discharge pipes, starting from the pipe located for example having otiv a back deaf mirror, and ending with a tube, the last along the beam and opposite the front output mirror, and the planes of the rear deaf and front output mirrors are perpendicular to the axes of the gas discharge tubes, the optical resonator bench is a metal structure of two plates connected by rods fixed to it two housings in which rotary mirrors and alignment block housings are located, in which a rear blind mirror, a radiation output unit, and corner mirror housings are located prisms, end plates are hermetically connected to the housing of the adjustment blocks.

According to the invention, in an electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture, the gas-discharge tubes inside the casing section are spaced relative to each other in partitions made of electrically conductive material made with sufficient accuracy, being current conductors for transmitting voltage to the glow discharge excitation electrodes. In addition, the partitions are arranged so as to use a common electrode for gas discharge tubes.

The invention is justified as follows. The arrangement of the discharge tubes in two rows and the laser transfer system should increase the output power of the laser.

The connection at the beginning of each passage to the end plates of the diaphragm with openings with a diameter smaller than the internal diameter of the gas discharge tubes helps to protect the edges of the tubes from the effects of intracavity radiation, as well as remove excess glare arising from the deviation of the axis of intracavity radiation from the axis of the tubes, and thereby increase quality of the output radiation of the waveguide resonator.

The design of the proposed electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture is illustrated in the drawings, in which Fig. 1 shows a side view of the laser, Fig. 2 shows the laser radiation in numbers, starting from (1) corresponding to the rear mirror and ending (22), corresponding to the output mirror.

The proposed electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture works as follows. The gas mixture pumping system pumps out atmospheric air from the vacuum circuit, which is the volume enclosed between the covers and end flanges, as well as the inner surface of the discharge tubes, then a gas mixture of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium is introduced into the vacuum circuit. Using a pumping system, the gas mixture moves inside the discharge tubes at a speed of up to 1 m / s. A high voltage is supplied from the power source to the electrodes through the conductive partitions, igniting a glow discharge to excite the gas mixture. The optical design of the resonator allows energy removal from the entire volume of the pipes and radiation output with minimal losses.

Information sources

1. E.V. Zelenov, E.A. Kurushin, A.A. Lisin, D.Yu. Filimonov. Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, a series of physical., Vol. 57, No. 12, pp. 123-126. 19934 p. "Technological single-mode CO ₂ laser excited by an alternating current discharge with a radiation power of 500 W".

2. MGGalushkin, VSGolubev, V.Ya. Panchenko, APRoshin, AVSoloviev. High power waveguide industrial CO ₂ lasers. Proc. SPIE, v. 2713, p. 76-84.

3. B.B. Vasiltsov, A. M. Zabelin, E. V. Zelenev, V. Ya. Panchenko, A. P. Roshchin, A. N. Safonov. Multichannel laser radiation generation unit. Application No. 96113587 dated 07/19/96. Patent 2108647, BI No. 10 of 04/10/98.

Claims (1)

An electric-discharge multichannel laser with diffusion cooling of the gas mixture, including a sealed enclosure, rods and end plates of the resonator integrated into an optical bench, the covers being hermetically connected to the enclosure, gas-discharge tubes arranged in a packet inside the enclosure and inserted into the openings of the plates of the optical bench, a cooling system with liquid pumping inside the housing for cooling the external surfaces of gas discharge pipes, two covers tightly attached to the end plates, a pumping system the mixture inside the gas discharge tubes, a power source and an electrode system for supplying high voltage to the gas discharge tubes and generating a glow discharge therein, an optical resonator including an optical bench with a rear blind mirror mounted on it at the beginning of the laser radiation and a front output mirror, and also rotary mirrors of mirror prisms located at the end surfaces of the package of gas discharge pipes, overlapping their ends, characterized in that the gas discharge pipes are arranged in a package in two rows at the same distance from each other, while the transfer of radiation from pipes of one row to pipes of another row is provided by two rotary mirrors of the mirror prism located at an angle of 90 ° relative to each other, and the transfer of radiation from pipes to pipes in rows is carried out by four rotary mirrors of mirror prisms , the plane of the bisectors of the intersection angles of which are offset relative to each other, and the laser radiation is introduced through all gas-discharge pipes, starting from the pipe opposite to it highly reflecting mirror, and ending with a pipe during the last radiation and located opposite the front of the output mirror.

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