OPERATION AND PERFORMANCE OF A 2-STAGE BLUMLEIN TRANSVERSELY EXCITED ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN LASER

In this paper we present a new electrical arrangement, a two-stage Blu mlein circuit, for the excitation of a nanosecond transversely excited atmospheric nitrogen (TEA-N-2) laser. The circuit consists of three d ischarge loops controlled by two spark gaps. By means of temporal adju stment in the second two-electrode spark gap, the laser channel was ma de to break down at the highest possible overvoltage. This produced a high laser output with low shot-to-shot fluctuation which was correlat ed to the enhanced discharge characteristics in the laser channel name ly, high current and low plasma resistance.