A Kilowatt Radio-Frequency Excited Diffusively Cooled All-Metal Slab Waveguide CO₂ Laser

A new type of rf excited diffusively cooled all-metal slab waveguide CO₂ laser is presented, in which the waveguide channel is constructed by two copper side walls and two copper electrodes, and the discharge is confined in the slab waveguide channel in terms of the voltage division structure. From this type of structure, over 1kW laser power is obtained with an efficiency of more than 13%.