| 摘要 |
Truncated ridge waveguide (1) for all-metal gas laser excitation according to present invention consists of a metal tube (4) and a pair of endplates (9) forming a vacuum envelope for a containing a laser gas, a laser resonator mirrors placed on the endplates (9) at the opposite ends of the tube (4) and at least one elongated metal ridge electrode (2) located within and conductively connected to the metal tube (4) by at least one metal post (3) to define a truncated ridge waveguide (1). The tube (4) and the ridge electrode (2) are shaped and positioned so as to define at least one elongated laser bore channel (7) and a low thermal resistance and high capacitance ridge-to-tube gap (6) therebetween. The ridge electrode (2) and metal posts (3) form truncated ridge to increase the ridge waveguide structure inductance, which together with high capacitance of the electrode-to-tube gap (6) decreases the resonant frequency from the microwave band into th VHF band (30-300 MHz), which is the most suitable for CO2 laser excitation. Present invention is characterized by lower cost, simpler tube and electrode design and more efficient RF discharge plasma cooling by the inner wall of the metal tube acting as one of the discharge electrodes, and by a ridge acting as a second discharge electrode. |
