Pulse forming networks for fast pumping of high power electron-beam-controlled CO2 lasers

The transverse electric discharge is a widely used technique for pumping CO2 lasers at high pressures for the generation, simply and efficiently, of very high power laser pulses. The development of the electron-beam-controlled discharge has allowed the application of the transverse discharge to large aperture, very high energy systems. LASL is now in the process of assembly and checkout of a CO2 laser which is designed to generate a one nanosecond pulse containing 10 kilojoules, for use in laser fusion experiments. The front end of this laser consists of a set of preamplifiers and a modelocked oscillator with electro-optic single pulse switchout. The final amplifier stage consists of four parallel modules, each one consisting of a two-sided electron gun, and two 35 x 35 x 200 cm gas pumping regions operating at a pressure of 1800 torr with a 3-1/4-1 (He/N2/CO2) laser mix.