Use of an LC transmission line to supply the discharge in a pulsed electron-beam-controlled CO laser

The first description is given of an electron-beam-controlled (EBC) CO laser with the main discharge supplied from an LC transmission line. This line significantly weakened superelastic collisions of the discharge electrons with the vibrationally excited CO molecules. The time dependences of the output radiation power of an EBC CO laser supplied from an LC transmission line were different from the corresponding dependences for the laser with a capacitor bank. Under the same conditions the efficiency of the laser with an LC transmission line (η = 22% at T = 140 K for a CO : N₂ = 1:19 mixture) was higher than the efficiency of a laser with a capacitor bank (η ≈ 15%). The use of an LC line as the pump considerably reduced (by a factor of up to 10⁵) the probability of damage to a titanium foil which separated the electron gun from the discharge chamber of the laser, compared with the corresponding probability for the laser with a capacitor bank.