Electrical characteristics of the discharge in a pulsed gas laser

Abstract

The resistance and inductance of a laser discharge in a pulsed gas laser are considered theoretically in this paper. The total charge and the dimensions of the discharge volume are responsible for the resistance and inductance of the laser channel respectively. Generally, the inductance increases either decreasing electrode length or discharge thickness, or increasing the interelectrode distance. The direct dependence of the resistance and inductance with the microscopically plasma parameters, total charge and drift velocity, was discovered in this paper through the external driving circuit and especially through its capacitance. The values of the capacitors form the total charge while the coupling of the capacitors in the circuits forms the drift velocity. These are inferred dealing with the two most common circuits used in a pulsed gas laser, namely the doubling circuit and the charge transfer circuit for all possible combinations of capacitance allocation.