A carbon dioxide gas-discharge slab-laser is assembled in a laser-housing. The laser-housing is formed from a hollow extrusion. An interior surface of the extrusion provides a ground electrode of the laser. Another live electrode is located within the extrusion, electrically insulated from and parallel to the ground electrode, forming a discharge-gap of the slab-laser. The electrodes are spaced apart by parallel ceramic strips. Neither the extrusion, nor the live electrode, include fluid coolant channels. The laser-housing is cooled by fluid-cooled plates attached to the outside thereof.

A cylindrical electrode module of a fiber optic laser system includes an inner cylinder having an inner repeating pattern of longitudinally-aligned positive and negative electrodes on an outer surface of the inner cylinder. The cylindrical electrode mode includes an outer cylinder that encloses the inner cylinder. The outer cylinder that has an outer repeating pattern of longitudinally-aligned negative and positive electrodes on an inner surface of the inner cylinder that are in corresponding and complementary, parallel alignment with the positive and negative electrodes of the inner repeating pattern on the outer surface of the inner cylinder. The cylindrical electrode module includes an optical fiber having an input end configured to align with and be optically coupled to a pump laser. The optical fiber is wrapped around the inner cylinder within the outer cylinder to form a cylindrical fiber assembly. The electrodes are activated to achieve quasi-phase matching.

A cylindrical electrode module of a fiber optic laser system includes an inner cylinder having an inner repeating pattern of longitudinally-aligned positive and negative electrodes on an outer surface of the inner cylinder. The cylindrical electrode mode includes an outer cylinder that encloses the inner cylinder. The outer cylinder that has an outer repeating pattern of longitudinally-aligned negative and positive electrodes on an inner surface of the inner cylinder that are in corresponding and complementary, parallel alignment with the positive and negative electrodes of the inner repeating pattern on the outer surface of the inner cylinder. The cylindrical electrode module includes an optical fiber having an input end configured to align with and be optically coupled to a high power pump laser. The optical fiber is wrapped around the inner cylinder within the outer cylinder to form a cylindrical fiber assembly. The electrodes are activated to achieve quasi-phase matching.

A fiber laser system includes a high power pump laser, an optical fiber that is aligned to receive output from the high power pump laser. The fiber laser system includes a first pair of orthogonally opposed, periodic electrode structures longitudinally aligned on opposite first and second sides of the optical fiber. The fiber laser system includes a controller that is communicatively coupled to the first pair of periodic electrode structures. The controller performs variable period poling of the first pair of periodic electrode structures to achieve quasi-phase matching (QPM).

A laser chamber apparatus may include a pipe, an inner electrode extending along a longitudinal direction of the pipe and disposed in a through hole in the pipe, an outer electrode including a contact plate extending along the longitudinal direction of the pipe and being in contact with an outer circumferential surface of the pipe and a ladder section formed of bar members each having one end connected to the contact plate and juxtaposed along a longitudinal direction of the contact plate, and a leaf spring extending along the longitudinal direction of the pipe and configured to press the outer electrode against the pipe. The leaf spring may include leaf spring pieces separated by slits, and the leaf spring pieces may each include a bent section bent along the edge and are configured to press the bar members in a position shifted from the bent sections toward the edge.

Disclosed is an electrode for a laser chamber comprising an alloy of a first metal having a first free energy of formation with fluorine greater than or equal to the free energy of formation with fluorine of copper, and a second metal having a second free energy of formation with fluorine less than the first free energy.

A multi-pass coaxial molecular gas laser is described in both symmetrical and asymmetrical configuration. An anode vessel receives lasing gas and the gas flows through one or more plasma channels to a cathode vessel which receives the gas and redirects it in the closed system. A second anode vessel may alternatively be provided to double length of the plasma channel and increase surface area exposure of the optical beam to the energized gas. Non-laminar gas flow may be created using spiral nozzles at the entrance of the optical resonator.

Online calibration of laser performance as a function of the repetition rate at which the laser is operated is disclosed. The calibration can be periodic and carried out during a scheduled during a non-exposure period. Various criteria can be used to automatically select the repetition rates that result in reliable in-spec performance. The reliable values of repetition rates are then made available to the scanner as allowed values and the laser/scanner system is then permitted to use those allowed repetition rates.

A radio-frequency, RF, slab laser 10 with a Z-fold resonator cavity defined by an output mirror 32, a first fold mirror 34, a second fold mirror 36 and a rear mirror 30. The second fold mirror 36 is rotated by an adjustment angle away from the angle it would have if the mirrors were all plane mirrors and directed the round trip beam path by direct reflection. Moreover, the rear mirror 30 is rotated by an adjustment angle that is approximately twice the adjustment angle of the second fold mirror 36. These rotations of the rear mirror 30 and second fold mirror 36 suppresses parasitic mode paths that would otherwise exist.

A waveguide gas laser having a laser resonator cavity of a variable length is subjected to cyclical varying of the length of the cavity during generation of a laser beam a length variation amount sufficient to force a laser beam generated in the resonator cavity though a substantially complete optical longitudinal cavity mode at a rate operable to smooth at least one laser beam parameter variation. In this manner variation in the laser beam parameter is averaged by moving through at least a portion of an optical longitudinal cavity mode.