Publication
Title
Effect of helium/argon gas ratio in a He-Ar-$Cu^{+}$ IR hollow-cathode discharge laser : modeling study and comparison with experiments
Author
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.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Applied physics: B: photo-physics and laser chemistry / German Physical Society. - Berlin
Applied physics B : lasers and optics. - Heidelberg, 1994, currens
Publication
Berlin : 2003
ISSN
0721-7269
Volume/pages
76 :3 (2003) , p. 299-306
ISI
000182758000017
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
 Faculty/Department Research group Publication type Subject Affiliation Publications with a UAntwerp address