United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Synrad, Inc.

Stanley R Byron

Peter Laakmann

Rodney A Petr

Thomas Burkes

Michael W Barrett

Israel Smilanski

An improved sealed-off RF-excited gas laser and method for its manufacture. The resonator section of the laser consists of four optically reflecting longitudinal walls which define the laser bore and plasma section. A concave mirror is mounted on one end of the resonator and a flat or concave output coupler is mounted at the other end. The laser resonator operates in a non-waveguide non-free space mode utilizing wall reflections. Artifacts are introduced at the optically reflecting walls to define a stable oscillatory axis and mode structure by favoring the establishment of stable reflection points along the length of the walls. These artifacts are created by carefully defined bends and tapers in some of the walls to create high mode purity, stability and relatively uncritical optical alignments. Manufacturing methods are disclosed to speed up passivation of the sealed enclosure by internal preexposure of the sealed envelope to oxygen-helium plasmas created at different temperatures, pressures and peak power than seen in the subsequent laser operation.

Sealed-off, RF-excited gas lasers and method for their manufacture

The low pressure gas-filled thyratron is scalable in the long dimension. Internally the tube is formed as a tetrode, with an auxiliary grid placed between the cathode and the control grid. A DC or pulsed power source drives the auxiliary grid both to insure uniform cathode emission and to provide a grid-cathode plasma prior to commutation. The high voltage holdoff structure consists of the anode, the control grid and its electrostatic shielding baffles, and a main quartz insulator. A small gas flow supply and exhaust system is used that eliminates the need for a hydrogen reservoir and permits other gases, such as helium, to be used. The thyratron provides a low inductance, high current, long lifetime switch configuration; useful for switch-on applications involving large scale lasers and other similar loads that are distributed in a linear geometry.

Linear geometry thyratron

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Stanley R Byron