Operation of a compact industrial XeCl laser at high average power

Bernard Lacour; Claude Gagnol; Bernard Vincent

doi:10.1117/12.248614

26 August 1996 Operation of a compact industrial XeCl laser at high average power

Bernard Lacour, Claude Gagnol, Bernard Vincent

Proceedings Volume 2788, High-Power Lasers: Gas and Solid State Lasers; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.248614
Event: Lasers, Optics, and Vision for Productivity in Manufacturing I, 1996, Besancon, France

Abstract

Two prototypes of a compact high average power XeCl industrial laser have been built and tested. They use the fast photo triggering principle with a 400 ns voltage rise time and a fast corona preionizer. This voltage rise time is short enough to eliminate self-breakdown and sufficiently long to strongly reduce the electrical stresses on the main thyratron. The design includes in the same stainless steel cylindrical vessel the complete gas circulation system, the discharge and the complete high current and high voltage circuitry. The overall volume, including gas bottles, vacuum pump, blowers motors and high voltage supplies, is less than 4 m³. Due to the special geometry of the discharge current loop, a very uniform field is achieved between the electrodes and along the insulators surfaces while keeping the inductance very low. This allows a good beam quality and a very good efficiency even at high repetition rate. Energy output and efficiency have been studied as a function of charging voltage, repetition rate frequency and preionization timing. Five hundred Hz continuous operation has been successfully tested on the first prototype while the second one has ben operated above at 400 Hz in burst mode. An intrinsic efficiency greater than 4% and an overall efficiency greater than 3% (blowers excluded) have been demonstrated.

Citation Download Citation

Bernard Lacour, Claude Gagnol, and Bernard Vincent "Operation of a compact industrial XeCl laser at high average power", Proc. SPIE 2788, High-Power Lasers: Gas and Solid State Lasers, (26 August 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.248614

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