Characteristics of a YAG triggered plasma shutter for a CO/sub 2/ laser beam

Author

Williams, R.L. ; Chase, K.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Florida A&M Univ., Tallahassee, FL, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

19-22 May 1997

Firstpage

166

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. We report the results of studies on the truncation of a CO/sub 2/ laser pulse using a plasma shutter. A short pulsed YAG laser is focused (f/3.4) into a low pressure gas (/spl ap/200 T) along with a longer pulsed CO/sub 2/ laser (f/1.25). The plasma produced by the YAG laser rapidly truncates the CO/sub 2/ laser pulse. We study the characteristics of the shutter as a function of the intensity of both lasers and their relative timing; and the plasma density and species. The resulting shortened CO/sub 2/ laser pulse can be used in plasma wave excitation experiments.

Keywords

carbon compounds; gas lasers; laser accessories; laser beams; plasma applications; plasma density; plasma light propagation; plasma production by laser; solid lasers; 200 torr; CO/sub 2/; CO/sub 2/ laser beam; CO/sub 2/ laser pulse; YAG; YAG triggered plasma shutter; YAl5O12; low pressure gas; plasma density; plasma shutter; plasma wave excitation experiments; relative timing; short pulsed YAG laser; Gas lasers; Laser beams; Laser modes; Laser theory; Optical pulses; Particle beams; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Plasma properties; Plasma waves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Science, 1997. IEEE Conference Record - Abstracts., 1997 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA, USA

ISSN

0730-9244

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3990-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.1997.604486

Filename

604486