(CO2 laser) is a gas laser with CO2 gas as the working material. The discharge tube is usually made of glass or quartz material and filled with CO2 gas and other auxiliary gases (mainly helium and nitrogen, and generally a small amount of hydrogen or xenon); The electrode is generally a nickel hollow cylinder; One end of the resonator is a gold plated total mirror, and the other end is a partial mirror polished with germanium or gallium arsenide. When a high voltage is applied to the electrode (usually DC or low-frequency AC), glow discharge is generated in the discharge tube, and laser output is available at one end of the germanium mirror, with a wavelength of 10.6 μ m in the mid infrared band; Generally good pipes. The continuous output power of 40-60W can be obtained in the discharge area about 1m long.
Knowledge of function and structure of CO2 laser (CO2 laser tube)
Carbon dioxide laser is an important gas laser. This is because it has some outstanding advantages:
1. It makes use of the transition between the vibrational and rotational energy levels of CO2 molecules, and has relatively rich spectral lines. There are dozens of spectral lines of laser output near 10 microns. High pressure CO2 lasers discovered in recent years can even achieve continuously tunable output from 9 to 10 microns;
2. Its output band is just the atmospheric window (i.e. the atmospheric transparency to this wavelength is high); In addition, it also has the advantages of high optical quality, good coherence, narrow linewidth and stable operation. Therefore, it has many applications in national economy and national defense, such as processing (welding, cutting, drilling, etc.), communication, radar, chemical analysis, laser induced chemical reaction, surgery, etc.
3. It has relatively high power and energy conversion efficiency. The general closed tube CO2 laser can have a continuous output power of tens of watts, which is far more than other gas lasers. The transverse flow electrically excited CO2 laser can have a continuous output power of hundreds of thousands of watts. In addition, the transverse atmospheric pressure CO2 laser has achieved a high level of energy and power output from the pulse, which is comparable to the solid-state laser. The energy conversion efficiency of CO2 laser can reach 30-40%, which is also higher than that of general gas laser.
