Title Effect of helium/argon gas ratio in a He-Ar-$Cu^{+}$ IR hollow-cathode discharge laser : modeling study and comparison with experiments Author Bogaerts, A. Grozeva, M. Faculty/Department Faculty of Sciences. Chemistry Publication type article Publication 2003 Berlin , 2003 Subject Physics Source (journal) Applied physics: B: photo-physics and laser chemistry / German Physical Society. - Berlin Applied physics B: lasers and optics. - Heidelberg Volume/pages 76(2003) :3 , p. 299-306 ISSN 0946-2171 ISI 000182758000017 Carrier E Target language English (eng) Full text (Publishers DOI) Affiliation University of Antwerp Abstract The He-Ar-Cu+ IR laser operates in a hollow-cathode discharge, typically in a mixture of helium with a few-% Ar. The population inversion of the Cu+ ion levels, responsible for laser action, is attributed to asymmetric charge transfer between He+ ions and sputtered Cu atoms. The Ar gas is added to promote sputtering of the Cu cathode. In this paper, a hybrid modeling network consisting of several different models for the various plasma species present in a He-Ar-Cu hollow-cathode discharge is applied to investigate the effect of Ar concentration in the gas mixture on the discharge behavior, and to find the optimum He/Ar gas ratio for laser operation. It is found that the densities of electrons, Ar+ ions, Ar-m* metastable atoms, sputtered Cu atoms and Cu+ ions increase upon the addition of more Ar gas, whereas the densities of He+ ions, He-2(+) ions and He-m* metastable atoms drop considerably. The product of the calculated Cu atom and He+ ion densities, which determines the production rate of the upper laser levels, and hence probably also the laser output power, is found to reach a maximum around 1-5% Ar addition. This calculation result is compared to experimental measurements, and reasonable agreement has been reached. E-info https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/iruaauth/c8125c/96e3933.pdf http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000182758000017&DestLinkType=RelatedRecords&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000182758000017&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000182758000017&DestLinkType=CitingArticles&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 Handle