Electric-discharge high-peak-power CO2 laser

A new electric-discharge CO₂ laser with a peak power of up to 45 MW and a half-height pulse duration of 50 ns is developed. The short laser pulse was formed using a generator with a semiconductor opening switch. The maximum laser radiation energy reached 6.2 J and the efficiency with respect to the stored energy was 15%. The first peak contained 70% of the energy, and the pulse duration at the base did not exceed 1 μs.