The plasma cathode design concept is applied to an Ar laser for the fi
rst time. The sliding discharge is used as a plasma cathode for the ma
in laser discharge. The laser operates at atmospheric pressure with a
gas mixture of Ar/He/SF6. Results concerning the dependence of the las
er performance on the gas mixture flow rates and charging Voltage are
presented. The temporal behavior of the laser output is also presented
. Output energies as high as 2 mJ, efficiency and specific energy extr
action values up to 1.3 x 10(-2)% and 0.02 J/l respectively, at atmosp
heric pressure, are obtained. The spectroscopic examination of the out
put shows that lasing at 1.79 and 1.27 mu m is obtained with approxima
tely equal line intensities. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Lt
d. All rights reserved.