Increase in the duration of the emission pulses from a CO2 laser with successively excited sections

Sectioned CO₂ lasers were investigated theoretically and experimentally for successive excitation of the individual sections. The parameters of each section were optimized (composition and pressure of the gas, energy input), so enabling long (up to 100 μsec) high-power output pulses to be obtained by electricaldischarge excitation. It was found that the successive excitation of two sections gave a laser output pulse duration a factor of 2.5 greater than that of the pulses produced both by independent and by simultaneous excitation of the individual sections.