High power metallic halide laser

摘要

A high power metallic halide laser capable of providing 300 watts of output power. More specifically, a laser amplification system is disclosed whereby a metallic halide vapor such as copper chloride (Cu3Cl3) is caused to flow through a laser amplifier (10) and a heat exchanger means (24) in a closed loop system whereby the flow rate is altered to control the temperature rise across the length of the laser amplifier. In the copper chloride laser described in an exemplary embodiment, the copper atoms within the laser amplifier should not exceed a temperature of 3000 DEG K. so that the number of copper atoms in the metastable state will not be high enough to prevent amplification in the amplifier. In addition, a molecular dissociation apparatus (20) is provided at the input to the laser amplifier for dissociating the copper chloride into copper atoms and ions and chlorine atoms and ions. The dissociation apparatus includes a hollow cathode tube (56) and an annular ring (60) spaced apart from the tube end (62). A voltage differential is applied between the annular ring and the hollow cathode tube so that as the copper chloride flows therethrough, it is dissociated into copper and chlorine ions and atoms.