A TE-TE N-2 OSCILLATOR-AMPLIFIER LASER WITH A 2-STAGE CASCADE DISCHARGE

A TE-TE N-2 oscillator-amplifier laser is developed with a two-stage c ascade discharge. The design of this two-stage laser consists of three laser electrodes, of which the centre one is a wire mesh. Two laser c hannels are formed where their time-delayed breakdowns create a cascad e discharge. Corona and Spark UV-preionizers are used for stabilizing the cascade discharge which improves the oscillator-amplifier synchron ization. A moderate amplifier output of 2 mJ is obtained, and its beam divergences of about 1.0 and 2.5 mrad, respectively, are measured in the horizontal and vertical directions. Despite its fairly long synchr onization time, this novel oscillator-amplifier system may have the ad vantage of being more compact by combining the two laser channels in a single laser chamber.