CHARACTERISTICS OF COPPER HYBRID-TYPE LASERS WHICH USE HCL REACTIVE GAS

We have investigated the output behaviour of a low temperature HyBrID- type copper laser operating with a flowing Ne-HCl reactive gas mixture . 15.5 W of average power was observed from a 19 mm bore device at 23 kHz PRF corresponding to a specific output power of 78 mW/cm(3). The o utput power was 20-30% lower than that of the same device operating wi th an Ne-HBr mixture; however, it markedly exceeds the output of simil ar sized elemental copper vapour lasers (with or without hydrogen addi tive).