Performance characteristics of a sealed-off CO2 laser system

Authors

  • Jose Omar Amistoso National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Paul Eric Parañal National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Vanessa de Villa National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Joshua Benito Natividad National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Marlon Rosendo Daza National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman

Abstract

Previous designs of CO2 laser systems constructed by the Laser Physics Group were the Transversely Excited Atmospheric (TEA) and the longitudinal, flowing configurations. One method of increasing the output power was to use cascaded amplifiers which was the result of the study of the gain characteristics of an active medium. An optimized single-pass gain of 1.6 was achieved using the oscillator-amplifier system. Potential industrial applications of this low power system was studied by performing low-scale cutting and drilling of non-metallic materials.

The ensuing generation of CO2 laser systems is the Sealed-Off CO2 Laser System. This configuration is particularly useful in low-power industrial materials processing and in some critical medical operations. This paper presents the results of an initial investigation of the performance characteristics of a sealed-off CO2 laser containing an active gain medium of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2) and helium (He) at a constant gas mixture ratio of 1:1:8. The experimental setup consists of a sealed-off CO2 laser tube whose gas inlet was fused to a diffusion-pump vacuum system. The vacuum system is capable of evacuating the laser tube chamber down to 6.6 x 10-6 mbar. The water-cooled laser tube has a discharge length of 31 cm, a minor-to-output-coupler separation of 33 cm and an inner tube diameter of 5 mm.

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Issue

Article ID

SPP-1995-LP-04

Section

Laser Physics and Spectroscopy

Published

1995-10-21

How to Cite

[1]
JO Amistoso, PE Parañal, V de Villa, JB Natividad, and MR Daza, Performance characteristics of a sealed-off CO2 laser system, Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas 13, SPP-1995-LP-04 (1995). URL: https://proceedings.spp-online.org/article/view/SPP-1995-LP-04.