Investigation Of The Ne-CuBr UV Laser Excited By High Repetition Rate Longitudinal Pulsed Discharge

The development history, property and application of atomic copper laser and UV copper ion laser were compendiously described. The pumping system and thermal design of metal vapor laser were introduced in detail, and the relevant parameters of the Ne-CuBr UV laser in high repetition frequency longitudinal pulse discharge were calculated accordingly. A kinetic model of the Ne-CuBr UV laser was created for the first time, and the optimization of the laser was explained in micro-dynamics. The experimental scheme and some unique techniques of the Ne-CuBr UV laser were spread out.The charge transfer reaction, radiation trapping effect and Penning collision in the high repetition rate longitudinal pulsed discharge Ne-CuBr UV laser were analyzed theoretically. The charge transfer reaction between the ground-state neon ion and the ground-state copper atom was identified as the main pumping channel of the upper level of the Ne-CuBr UV laser. The radiation trapping effect and the Penning collision play an important role in the deexcitation of the lower level of the UV laser transition.A self-consistent physical model was developed, which completely describes the micro kinetics and collision processes in the Ne-CuBr UV laser excited by high repetition rate longitudinal pulsed discharge. Considering the experimental parameters, the relevant collision cross sections and reaction rate coefficients were obtained by referring literatures and theory estimation. The electrical and laser pulse waveforms and the time evolutions of the micro parameters, such as the population density of the upper and lower level of the UV laser, electron temperature, electron density, etc.,were presented. The mechanics of population inversion and laser emission process were clarified.By the kinetic model, a complete explanation of the experimental optimization processes was presented. The relationships between the laser output characteristics and the experimental parameters, including the discharge tube radius, neon gas pressure, reservoir temperature, were calculated, and consistent results with the experiment were obtained. Analyses show that the optimization of neon gas pressure and reservoir temperature can be boiled down to a balance of the ground-state neon ions and the ground-state copper atoms which one increases with the other decreases, vice versa. And the optimization of the discharge tube radius is a tradeoff between the specific laser output power and the whole volume of the active media. The lucid understanding of the laser parameter optimization process would provide use for reference to improve the UV laser performance.In the experiments, a vacuum system with gas additive function, electrodes with impurity capture, and an equipment for CuBr purification were designed, fabricated and finally applied to the Ne-CuBr UV laser. With periodical refreshment of the buffer gas, the Ne-CuBr UV laser oscillation was successfully obtained in high repetition frequency longitudinal discharge with IC and Blumlein circuits.