Someone with lots of gas explain TEA CO2?

Alright, I am very curious about the air-breakdown experiments with this TEA CO2 laser. There are a few videos on youtube and some random pictures of them in action, but generally what do the inner workings of these lasers look like exactly? Does anyone have one or built one from scratch?


Thanks. btw, I have built throw together TEA nitrogen lasers and given them 1.4KW of input from a bank of 2 12Kv 60mA XMFRs. output was great until I melted the lasing cavity it was kind of a CW overdriven TEA nitrogen on steriods. 140nF 30kvdc rated cap bank. Laser sounded like a rotary shotgun with a bad attitude.

Thanks. btw, I have built throw together TEA nitrogen lasers and given them 1.4KW of input from a bank of 2 12Kv 60mA XMFRs. output was great until I melted the lasing cavity it was kind of a CW overdriven TEA nitrogen on steriods. 140nF 30kvdc rated cap bank. Laser sounded like a rotary shotgun with a bad attitude.[/QUOTE]


The helium "smooths" the discharge in a TEA Co2 as well as providing a wonderful heat transfer fluid. Nitrogen is notorious for making useless heat in gas discharges, its what is added to a discharge lamp to aid in vaporizing the mercury.

TEA CO2 are used for mask marking, ie a one shot blast to mark a chip or wafer.

RF boosted DC CW TEA are used in older 1-30 kW industrial lasers, the topology rocks.

I dont have time to go into the details, but go to deepdyve.com and figure out a good set of search terms.

I have a commercial TEA N2 that the same tube is used for co2, the windows are held in against indium seals, so with some effort. you can switch over to Co2 and add a resonator or just a rear mirror.

You'll need n2,co2, and helium for conversion purposes. Often you can get a AR-c02 mix for welding and add He as needed for a cheap try at 1/3rd the power. N2 transfers charge into the Co2 molecule, helium depopulates the lower level and cools the gas by conduction.

Even excimer lasers can be refilled with co2 and used as a TeA with a window change.

But every tea co2 I've seen did have a HR and output coupler.

Steve