Microwave-discharge-excited CO/sub 2/ laser using orthogonally crossing electric fields

Summary form only given. The microwave discharge excitation method has the following advantages for CO/sub 2/ lasers. First, having a low supply voltage magnetron as the microwave oscillator tends to make the laser system compact and safe. Second, discharge without electrodes in the laser tube can bring about high purity of laser gas and less degradation of optics. However, there have been few practical high-power microwave excited CO/sub 2/ lasers because it is difficult to make one with a uniform discharge. In this work, we have realized homogeneous microwave discharge by employing orthogonally crossing electric fields and have achieved high microwave-to-optical efficiency, comparable to that of the DC discharge type.