Saturation of the molecular nitrogen second positive laser transition

Design of a reliable, high-power, nitrogen laser

Thyratron switching of the electric excitation of transversely excited atmospheric pressure (TEA) nitrogen lasers results in higher energy, about four times better stability (3% FWHM) and 100 times smaller jitter (1 ns) compared to spark gap switching. The laser operation is very sensitive to the heating voltage of the thyratron.

High-stability thyratron-switched TEA nitrogen laser

The design and performance of a compact cross-field 337 nm N2 laser are described. The laser produces pulses of 2 MW peak power and 600 ps FWHM at an optimum pressure of 75 Torr and a repetition rate of 1 pulse/s, variable up to 12 pulse/s. The improvement in laser performance is a result of total impedance value reduction as well as careful adjustment of the electrical circuit parameters.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3735/19/6/016/pdf

A high power, short pulse-width, low pressure N2 laser

This work presents a spark-gap with a new design, using properties of electric discharges on insulating surface materials. It generates pulses with high frequency components of larger amplitudes, when compared with conventional spark-gap designs. Testing this spark-gap design in an N2 TE UV laser, laser emission shows an increase of 60 §b in peak power output and a temporal width value reduction of 40 §b. This new design is very simple and strongly modifies laser output characteristics.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/24/92/87/PDF/ajp-jp3v4p2609.pdf

An efficient and simple spark-gap design for gas lasers

This describes a very simple spark gap capable of switching high voltages up to 30 kV at a repetition rate as high as 100 Hz. The device has been working without any failure for several months.

F. Zaraga

Papers

Simple spark gap for a high repetition rate nitrogen laser