A pulse repetition frequency scaling law for the high repetition rate neutral barium laser

The variations in the output energy per pulse and in the average power output of the neutral Ba cyclic metal vapor laser as a function of the pulse repetition rate have been analyzed. At constant input power, the output energy per pulse is found to vary inversely as the two-thirds power of the pulse repetition frequency and so the average output power varies as the pulse repetition frequency to the one-third power up to the point where the Ba metastables do not have sufficient time to relax between pulses. Since the experiments which have been analyzed were conducted with a constant value for the laser discharge capacitance, these results imply that the output energy per pulse of this laser varies as the four-thirds power of the input voltage.