Characteristics of a large-bore copper vapor laser with gas-cooling plates

It has been experimentally found that the insertion of plates into the plasma tube has improved the output characteristics of an 80-mm copper vapor laser. It has been revealed that the buffer gas temperature decreases and the metastable-state (the lower laser level) density of copper atoms decreases near the center axis of the plasma tube. Moreover, electric power is transferred into plasma more efficiently because of the increase in plasma impedance. As a result, the average output power is increased by 57 % and the beam intensity profile has become uniform.