A simmer circuit for flash-lamp pumping of solid-state lasers

The simmer circuit in the flash lamp-pumped solid-state lasers allows maintaining a low DC current in the lamp. Otherwise, the use of the high trigger voltage would be necessary. This considerably reduces the flash lifetime. With the simmer, just a single triggering for the initial ionization of the gas is needed. For this purpose we use a simple piezoelectric ignitor. A commercial switching power supply with a 200 Vac and 64 kHz output is used, to which is added a voltage multiplier designed to maintain the flash ionization and ensure its stable operation during the laser pumping. The experimental results on a linear xenon flash-lamp allow the validation of the multiplier model and previous optimization simulation. The tests of the developed simmer circuit, in the case of a Nd: YAG laser, have been successful for several hours of operation without cooling, at 1 Hz repetition rate and 20 joules as pumping energy.