Influence of the voltage pulse front shortening on the pulse repetition rate in a copper vapour laser

The lasing characteristics of a copper vapour laser are investigated in the regime of a pulse train excited in the internalheating tube with the diameter of 2 cm and length of 48 cm. Two power supply schemes are compared: a conventional scheme with a storage capacitor discharged through a thyratron connected to a peaking capacitor and the scheme in which the peaking capacitor is connected to the laser active element through a kivotron – a fast switch based on the 'open discharge' with a turn-on time of less than 1 ns. It is shown that in the considered range of the pulse repetition rates f = 2 – 16 kHz in the first case we deal with a typical energy dependence on frequency having a maximum near 4 – 5 kHz. In the second case, the lasing energy is frequency-independent; hence, the average power in this range is proportional to f. The results obtained are explained by the neutralised influence of the initial electron concentration on energy characteristics of the copper vapour laser.