JPS6019678B2 - Lateral discharge laser tube - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser tube using lateral discharge.

In high-output molecular lasers that use molecules such as carbon dioxide gas, in order to cool the laser gas and increase the number of effective molecules, the gas is discharged in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis to obtain high output.

This will be explained with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 shows a conventional lateral discharge laser tube, which consists of a cathode electrode consisting of a large number of pins 1, an anode electrode 2 in the form of a plate or rod, and an outer device 3 surrounding these to form a gas flow path.

A stable resistor 4 of several KQ to several tens of KQ is connected to each of the pins 1, and the anode electrode 2 and the power source 5 are connected to each other.
It is connected to the. Gas flows between the pin 1 and the anode electrode 2 in the direction of the arrow 6, and the laser gas is excited by the discharge between the pin 1 and the anode electrode 2. Laser optical axis 7
is set as shown, and mirrors (not shown) placed at both ends form a resonator. As the output increases, the length of Koto 7 becomes longer and the cross section becomes larger, so
The number of pins forming the cathode electrode increases, from several tens to several 1
There are as many as 00 pieces. In FIG. 1, the pins 1 are only arranged in one row in the optical axis direction, but sometimes they are arranged in several rows. In any case, the number of resistors is very large, and each requires a stabilizing resistor 4 in order to disperse and make the discharge uniform. Including the wiring between these, the device becomes quite large and takes up a lot of space. Removal of the amount of heat generated in the stabilizing resistor 4 must also be considered. The direction of the discharge can be the same as the direction of the gas flow, or it can be perpendicular to the direction of the gas flow, but in both cases it is important to use large-area electrodes to uniformly discharge the discharge over as wide a range as possible. . For this reason, generally, a stabilizing resistor 4 is connected to each of a large number of pin-shaped electrodes to disperse the discharge over a wide range. Therefore, the overall structure is quite complex. An object of the present invention is to integrate all of these into a compact structure and simplify manufacturing. That is, the cathode electrode of the present invention has a structure in which a large number of discharge pins are planted in a rod-shaped resistor, and furthermore, deionized cooling water can be passed through a passage to remove the heat generated in the electrode resistance during use. It is. Conventionally, there is an example of using a large number of pins immersed in an electrolytic solution for pulse discharge, but when using this for continuous discharge, a large amount of gas is generated due to electrolysis, making it difficult to use in practice. This is the solution. This invention will be explained below. Although the structure of the electrode needs to be slightly changed when the discharge direction and the gas flow direction are perpendicular or parallel, the basic principles are the same, so the former case will be mainly explained.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the electrode according to the invention.

The cathode electrode consists of a pin 9 embedded in a conductive plastic body 8 containing carbon powder or metal powder (note:
(The surface may be covered with ceramic, etc. to provide heat resistance.) The heat generated by the resistance is removed by pure water flowing through the passage 10 formed in the crab-conducting plastic body 8. In the same case as in the case of FIG. 1, a discharge occurs between the pin 9 and the front electrode 2, and the laser gas is excited. Although FIG. 2 depicts the case where the pins 9 are arranged in three rows, it goes without saying that this is not limited to three rows. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the direction of gas flow and the direction of discharge are perpendicular, but they can of course be parallel.

An embodiment in that case is shown in FIG. In this case, the guiding fin plastic bodies are 8A and 8B, and the anode electrode is 2.
It is divided into A and 2B so that gas can flow between them. As explained above, this invention uses a conductive plastic body with many pins as a cathode electrode, so the resistance of the conductive plastic body acts as a stabilizing resistor, so a separate stabilizing resistor is used. It has the advantage that it eliminates the need for a body, can be constructed compactly as a whole, and is extremely easy to manufacture.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing the main part of a conventional laser tube using a cathode electrode consisting of a large number of pins, Fig. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the main part showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the main part showing the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of main parts showing another embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a pin, 2 is an anode electrode, 3 is an envelope, 4 is a stabilizing resistor, 5 is a power source, 6 is an arrow, 7 is an optical axis, 8 is a conductive plastic body, 9 is a pin, and 10 is a It is a passage. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An anode electrode, a cathode electrode made of a conductive plastic body having a number of pins erected thereon and a cooling path for removing heat, and means for flowing laser gas between the anode electrode and the pins of the cathode electrode. A lateral discharge laser tube characterized by comprising: