Method and apparatus for exciting an ion laser at microwave frequencies

Claim 1

A method of exciting an ion laser at microwave frequencies comprising the steps of: providing an electrically conductive, tubular conductor and disposing an electrically insulative tube concentricallY within said conductor; fixing Brewster windows over the ends of said tube and thereby sealing a lasing medium within said tube; transferring microwave power into said tube by means of a waveguide-to-coaxial transition unit wherein the center conductor of the output of said unit is connected to a first sleeve that surrounds said tube thereby causing said medium to lase, and; positioning copper sleeves around said tube on either side of said first sleeve thereby controlling standing wave patterns within said tube and concentrating said discharge power between said copper sleeves.

Claim 2

A device for producing a continuous wave, ion laser comprising: means for containing a plasma medium; means, surrounding said containing means, for functioning as the outer conductor of a coaxial line; means for exciting said plasma medium with microwave frequency power thereby producing a continuous wave, ion laser, and; electrically conductive sleeves positioned around said containing means for controlling the standing wave pattern within said plasma tube thereby eliminating spurious discharges and enhancing the power output of said ion laser.

Claim 10

An apparatus for exciting a continuous wave, high-energy density ion laser with microwave frequency power, comprising: a fused quartz plasma tube containing a lasing medium and having Brewster windows mounted at each end; an electrically conductive resonant structure surrounding said plasma tube; means for exciting said lasing medium including a magnetron coupled to a directional coupler, said coupler feeding a tunable waveguide-to-coaxial transition unit, said transition unit being coupled to said resonant structure and to said plasma tube thereby exciting said lasing medium and producing a continuous wave laser; means for controlling said laser including electrically conductive metallic sleeves placed about said plasma tube, said sleeves being placed apart a distance of N lambda g/2, where N is an integer and lambda g is the wavelength of said microwave frequency in a coaxial Gas discharge center conductor; and means for electrically connecting said sleeves to said resonant structure thereby varying the effective width and wavelength of said sleeves, said means for electrically connecting being spring means for slidably biasing said sleeves between said tube and said resonant structure thereby enabling said sleeves to be positioned to control the standing wave pattern of said lasing medium and eliminating spurious discharges.