The influence of additives and contaminants in TEA CO2 laser discharges evaluated by electrical measurements

Observation of the electrical characteristic of the glow discharge allows easy study of the influence of additives and contaminants. Moreover, when arcing occurs, interesting information is obtained by observing the damping of the arc current. The efficacy of the low-ionization organic additive to prevent arcing is confirmed, and the deleterious influence of oxygen contamination is demonstrated. This result accounts for the technical rule of preventing air from entering the discharge vessel. Increased output peak power is observed, resulting from the use of a suitable additive.