Title :
Time-varying beam quality factor and mode evolution in TEA CO2 laser pulses
Author :
Encinas-Sanz, F. ; Serna, J. ; Martínez, C. ; Martínez-Herrero, R. ; Mejías, P.M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. de Opt., Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Spain
fDate :
10/1/1998 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The time evolution of the transversal modes in a TEA CO2 laser cavity has been investigated from the analysis of the time-varying beam quality factor M2 of the emitted pulses. The experiments reveal a significant change in this parameter during the pulse evolution, which can be translated into an evolution of the modes of the laser cavity to reach a nearly stationary behavior. Attention is focused on both the appearance of a particular mode and the duration of its growing process
Keywords :
Q-factor; carbon compounds; gas lasers; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; CO2; CO2 laser cavity; TEA CO2 laser; TEA CO2 laser pulses; emitted pulses; growing process; laser cavity; mode duration; mode evolution; nearly stationary behavior; pulse evolution; time-varying beam quality factor; transversal modes; Laser beam cutting; Laser beams; Laser modes; Mirrors; Optical propagation; Optical pulses; Optical resonators; Polarization; Pulse measurements; Q factor;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
