SIMULTANEOUS EMISSION OF THE HF AND N-2 LINES FROM A PLASMA CATHODE TEA LASER

Simultaneous laser action from HF and N (2) is obtained, from a plasma cathode TEA laser, for the first time, The sliding discharge along th e surface of a dielectric is used as a plasma cathode, for the main vo lumetric discharge. The laser operates at atmospheric pressure, with a gas mixture of SF6:C3H8:N-2:He. For a typical how rate ratio of 0.27: 0.024:0.2:19.8 1min(-1), it produces simultaneously 160 mJ HF and 0.6 mJ N-2 laser outputs at 0.43% and 14x10(-3)% efficiencies respectively , at the moderate charging voltage of 28.5 kV, These output characteri stics are obtained from a small active discharge volume and length of 106 cm(3) and 38 cm respectively, These values extend the performance, recently reported in the literature, of a sliding discharge HF/N-2 la ser with corresponding simultaneous energy outputs of 12 mJ HF and 1.1 mJ N-2, to a higher energy output level, thus making the device suita ble for a broader range of applications, This novel dual wavelength HF /N-2 laser system presented, can be particularly convenient for medica l experiments, where the IR beam can be used for tissue ablation, whil e the UV beam can be used as the excitation source for fluorescence sp ectroscopic measurements, for the evaluation of the ablation process, Details are presented on the dependence of the laser performance param eters, such as output energy, discharge voltage and current and struct ure of the laser output pulses on the mixture composition and the circ uit parameters.