Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO2 Laser

Geng, Lijie; Song, Shuaifei; Yang, Kun; Yan, Pengji; Fu, Zhenxiang; Qu, Yanchen; Zhang, Ruiliang; Zhang, Zhifeng

doi:10.3390/photonics12030188

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser

by

Lijie Geng

¹,

Shuaifei Song

¹,

Kun Yang

^1,2,*,

Pengji Yan

¹,

Zhenxiang Fu

¹,

Yanchen Qu

^3,*,

Ruiliang Zhang

¹

and

Zhifeng Zhang

¹

School of Electronic and Information, Henan Province Optoelectronic Sensing and Information Processing Engineering Technology Research Center, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450000, China

²

School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450007, China

³

National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Tunable Laser, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Photonics 2025, 12(3), 188; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12030188

Submission received: 4 January 2025 / Revised: 11 February 2025 / Accepted: 21 February 2025 / Published: 24 February 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Infrared Lasers and Applications)

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Abstract

The tunable CO₂ laser is a common pump source for optically pumped terahertz lasers. In this paper, based on a sealed-off CO₂ laser tube and a grating-tuned cavity, we reported an efficient, high-power, low-cost, simple structure and tunable continuous-wave CO₂ laser. A sealed-off CO₂ laser tube was designed and customized, and its plasma discharge characteristics were experimentally analyzed. The influence of output coupler transmittance and discharge current on the laser’s tunability and output power was systematically studied using grating tuning. A total of 78 spectral lines were achieved within the wavelength range of 9.17–10.86 μm. The maximum output power of 55.5 W was recorded on the 10P20 line when the output coupler transmittance was approximately 22%. The laser exhibited a beam spot radius of about 3.8 mm and a beam quality factor (M²) of 1.74.

Keywords: CO₂ laser; sealed-off laser; wavelength tuning; continuous-wave; grating

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MDPI and ACS Style

Geng, L.; Song, S.; Yang, K.; Yan, P.; Fu, Z.; Qu, Y.; Zhang, R.; Zhang, Z. Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser. Photonics 2025, 12, 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12030188

AMA Style

Geng L, Song S, Yang K, Yan P, Fu Z, Qu Y, Zhang R, Zhang Z. Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser. Photonics. 2025; 12(3):188. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12030188

Chicago/Turabian Style

Geng, Lijie, Shuaifei Song, Kun Yang, Pengji Yan, Zhenxiang Fu, Yanchen Qu, Ruiliang Zhang, and Zhifeng Zhang. 2025. "Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser" Photonics 12, no. 3: 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12030188

APA Style

Geng, L., Song, S., Yang, K., Yan, P., Fu, Z., Qu, Y., Zhang, R., & Zhang, Z. (2025). Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser. Photonics, 12(3), 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12030188

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Experimental Study of an Efficient, High Power and Tunable Continuous-Wave CO₂ Laser

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