A highly-stressed cylindrical electrode carbon dioxide (CO2) transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) laser

A cylindrical electrode scheme which utilizes a fine wire as the central electrode is investigated for compact carbon dioxide (CO2), transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) laser applications. It is found that the strong radial dependence of electrical energy deposition into the plasma, a consequence of the large ratio of outer to inner electrode radii, produces a radial gain profile which is well localized in the center of the discharge tube. This allows for efficient matching of low order stable modes to the active gain region while providing a high degree of mode selectivity in favor of these modes. Oscillation in the TEM(01) Laguerre-Gaussian mode has been obtained at electrical efficiencies approaching 4 percent.