EFFECTS OF H2 BUFFER GAS ADDITIVE ON REPETITION RATE SCALING OF A COPPER-VAPOR LASER

The variations in the output power of a copper vapour laser resulting from H-2 additive to neon buffer gas are investigated for a wide range of pulse repetition frequencies (3.2 to 19.7 kHz). Small improvements in laser output power (9%) were observed for approximately 2% H-2-Ne admixture at low repetition frequency, these improvements becoming pro gressively larger (up to 250%) as the repetition rate increased. These observations are consistent with added H-2 modifying the interpulse k inetics, thereby altering the spatiotemporal evolution of the output p ulse. In particular, the observed average output power increases at el evated repetition rates owing to both increased laser pulse energy and increased optimum pulse repetition frequency.