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Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers
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Back to Sam's Laser FAQ Table of Contents.
Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sub-Table of Contents
Introduction, Suitability, Safety, Links to Other Information
High Power Lasers
CO2 Laser Safety
Reasons to Choose a CO2 or Nd:YAG Laser
Comments on CO2 Laser Eiciency
Comparison of CO2 and Nd:YAG Lasers for Industrial Applications
Operational Hazards with CO2 Lasers
Detecting or Locating CO2 Laser Beam
On-Line Introduction to CO2 Lasers
Links to Information on CO2 Lasers
Types and Excitation of CO2 Lasers
Basic Principles of Operation
Types of CO2 Lasers
Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers
Sealed CO2 Lasers
Transverse Excited Atmospheric (TEA) CO2 Lasers
Slab Type CO2 Lasers
Waveguide CO2 Lasers
RF Excited CO2 Lasers
Comparison of DC and RF Excitation
Power Supplies for CO2 Lasers
Typical Power Supply for a Sealed CO2 Laser
Electrical Modulation of a CO2 Laser
Gas Dynamic CO2 Laser
Gas Fill
Composition and Pressures for CO2 Lasers
Why is There Carbon Monoxide in Some CO2 Lasers?
About the High Cost of Sealed CO2 Laser Rells
CO2 Chemical Laser
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Optics
A Discussion on CO2 Laser Optics
What Materials Pass or Block the CO2 Laser 10.6 um Wavelength?
Required Mirror Diameter for CO2 Laser Beam Steering
Reective Optics for CO2 Lasers
Polarizers for CO2 Lasers
CO2 Optics Cleaning
Marking, Burning, Cutting, Welding Lasers, Costs
Marking/Engraviing Lasers
Small Wood Burning Lasers
Large Wood Cutting Lasers
Cutting Printed Circuit Boards
Plastic Cutting Lasers
Cutting Styrofoam with a CO2 Laser
Cutting Polycarbonate with a CO2 Laser
Cutting Thin Mylar Film with a CO2 Laser
Aluminum Cutting Lasers
Aluminum Welding Lasers
Cutting Copper with a CO2 Laser
Stone Cutting Lasers
Fabric Cutting Lasers
Focus Position and Cutting Speed
Large Cutting Laser - Not Quite a Basement Project!
Continue Dreaming
Miscellaneous CO2 Laser Tidbits
Steve Discovers the Fun of CO2 Lasers
CO2 Laser Communications
Novel Idea for CO2 Laser
The World's Most Ineicient CO2 Laser
CO2 Laser for Tree Pruning?
CO2 Laser for Paint Removal
If You Have the Space and Power
High Power Compact CO2 Laser?
Frequency Multiplication of CO2 Laser?
Laughing Gas (N2O) Laser
Small Commercial CO2 Lasers
Coherent Xanar XA-20 Medical CO2 Laser
Synrad 48-1 and 48-2 RF Excited CO2 Lasers
Hughes 3800H Waveguide CO2 Laser
VINCA Mini TEA CO2 Laser
Laser Photonics CO2 Laser Tube
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Descriptions of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers

Commercial Versions of the Type of CO2 Laser You Could Build
Coherent 541
Sharplan 733
Sharplan 1060
Merrimack 850

Back to Carbon Dioxide Lasers Sub-Table of Contents.
Introduction, Suitability, Links to Other

Information
High Power Lasers
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) lasers make all the types discussed in previous chapters
seem like LEDs compared to xenon arc search lights! Where common diode,
HeNe, and even most Ar/Kr lasers put out mW of optical power, nearly all CO2
lasers are rated in WATTs or KILOWATTS. Even the smallest sealed CO2 laser
looking much like a HeNe tube, will produce a few watts continuously. Large
CO2 lasers used in the metalworking industry may have continuous outputs of
up to 30 kW or more. And special purpose CO2 lasers have been constructed
that produce 10 or 20 MEGAWATTS CW.
The distinguishing characteristic of the CO2 lasing process that makes these
sustained power levels possible is its relatively high eiciency - at least
compared to most other common gas lasers. The typical electrical power in to
optical power out (wall plug) eiciency of a CO2 laser may be anywhere from 5
to 20 percent or more (compared to less than 0.1 percent for a HeNe or Ar/Kr
ion laser). The only well developed laser technology which has a higher
conversion eiciency than the CO2 laser is the high power IR laser diode, where
a wall plug eiciency of greater than 50 percent is possible.
Unlike the other lasers producing visible or short near-IR light, the output of a
CO2 laser is medium-IR radiation at 10.6 um. At this wavelength, normal glass
and plastics are opaque, and water completely absorbs the energy in the beam.
The 10.6 um energy is ideal for cutting, engraving, welding, heat treating, and
other industrial processing of many types of materials including (as
appropriate): metals, ceramics, plastics, wood, paper, cardboard, fabric,
composites, and much much more.
Needless to say, 10.6 um is totally invisible to the human eye and conventional
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solid state sensors are blind as a post. Therefore, thermal approaches are
generally used to measure beam power or determine beam prole. Companies
like Macken Instruments, Inc. sell low cost CO2 viewing plates, power meters,
and spectrum analyzers.
The CO2 laser represents the classic heat ray of science ction. I have no doubt
that the Martians in H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" used CO2 lasers
powered by cold fusion generators (probably with superconducting electrical
backup storage) for their directed energy weapons. :-) (Chemical lasers would
have required bulky reactant storage tanks to achieve the number and length of
blasts and none were visible!)
The output power of most CO2 lasers is between a few W and a few kW (CW or
average if pulsed). The smallest of these look a lot like helium-neon lasers and
also used 'brick' type power supplies. Such a 5 W CO2 laser would be similar in
size to a 5 mW HeNe laser though forced air cooling might be required.
However, some amazingly high power CO2 lasers have been constructed. The
largest one might be at the Troisk Institute for Thermonuclear Research (in
Troisk, about 80 miles outside of Moscow, Russia). This is claimed to be a 10
MegaWatt laser but that might be a slight exaggeration but not by much. It is
truly a CW laser though and would run for as long as power and cooling were
supplied. I don't know the exact size of the laser but the room it is in rivaled
that of the NOVA pulsed laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
(I don't know if it is still in operation.)
For high peak power, there are Q-switched CO2 lasers though they probably
aren't that common. One example is the "GEM Q-Switched" from Coherent, Inc..
(Go to "Laser and Other Related Products", "Laser Systems", "CO2", "GEM
Q-Switched".)
CO2 lasers are also among the easier types to construct (in a relative sort of
way) so they make decent condidates for home-built lasers. See the chapter:
Home-Built Laser Types and Information.
CO2 Laser Safety

(Portions from: Leonard Migliore (lm@laserk.com).) Laser safety is something
that must always be taken seriously. CO2 lasers are more dangerous in many
ways but less of a hazard with respect to some. The combination of high output
power and an invisible beam AND high voltage power supplies represent a very
real possibility of re/heat damage from the direct or reected beam as well as
a serious shock hazard. On the other hand, the 10.6 um wavelength doesn't
pass through the cornea, lens, and vitreous of the eye to be focused on the
retina. Therefore, damage to structures in the back of the eye is unlikely
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although the front can still be burned to a crisp!

Virtually all CO2 lasers are Class IV devices. The safety discussion below
assumes a relatively 'small' DC or RF excited CO2 laser, perhaps up to 200 W of
beam power. Such a laser could conceivably be constructed at home or acquired
surplus. However, keep in mind that the term 'small' here is only relative to a
high power industrial laser. A 100 W unit can cut a reasonable thickness of
sheet steel and certainly set a big re at 100 yards. I guess a 100 kW laser
would be more dangerous, but few hobbyists have one. :-)
Safety precautions are extremely important for even small CO2 lasers for a
variety of reasons:
High power. Even the smallest CO2 laser has an output beam power
measured in watts - usually many watts. This is enough to heat, melt, char,
and burn common materials even if not particularly well focused. The basic
CO2 lasers constructed by amateurs (See the section: Home-Built CO2
Laser) are quite capable of starting res (they typically produce between
10 and 50 W CW but higher power units are not out of the question).
The power is the big point here. The 9 to 11 um outputs of CO2 lasers are
relatively benign; it's just that there are so many watts there that the
things are inherently dangerous.
Human esh including the front parts of the eye are just as susceptible to
the 10.6 um energy! Laser burns can be particularly nasty as you may not
feel anything initially due to the instant death of nerves and cauterization
of surrounding tissue. However, a few minutes later, it will hurt like H**l.
The rst evidence of exposure to the beam may be the wonderful aroma of
burnt esh - yours!
CO2 lasers are quite good at burning ngers and stu. Again, this is
because of the wattage, not the wavelength (although skin does absorb
very well at CO2 wavelengths). People must be careful messing around
with materials processing lasers unless they want to be the material being
processed!
The beam is TOTALLY invisible. While the 10.6 um wavelength can't reach
the back of the eye and the retina (unless the front part has been totally
obliterated), the eye can still be permanently damaged since the
transparent tissues like the cornea and lens are quite sensitive to increases
in local temperature - and have limited or no ability to sense there is a
problem until it is too late.
Never mess around with Class IV lasers without eye protection. Burnt
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ngers heal; burnt eyes don't.

High voltage or RF power supply. While DC excited CO2 lasers use power
supplies similar in many respects to those for HeNe lasers, they are usually
much larger both in voltage and often in current as well. Both commercial
and home-built CO2 laser power supplies can be quite lethal. RF power
supplies have, in addition, the possibility of causing RF burns as well as
shock and electrocution. All safety precautions must be taken when
working on or around this equipment. See the document: Safety Guidelines
for High Voltage and/or Line Powered Equipment for detailed information
before contemplating the inside or HV terminals of a CO2 laser power
supply or the electrode connections on the CO2 laser tube.
HV has killed several people working on CO2 lasers. The things run around
20 kV and often, the optics are at this potential. This makes peaking power
a hazardous venture.
Water cooling. CO2 lasers often use tap or recirculating water through a
water jacket surrounding the tube. With many thousands of volts in close
proximity, extra precautions must be taken as water and electricity don't
mix very well when it comes to survival!
This is not usually a problem with commercial lasers, but denitely can be
a concern with home-built equipment!
Some general considerations when working with CO2 lasers:
Provide a beam stop capable of safely absorbing this power on a
continuous basis.
Clearly mark and if possible, block o access to the path of the beam.
Reected beams may have nearly as much power as the original and are
just as dangerous. Although many common materials will block 10.6 um,
specular surfaces will reect it quite well.
Make sure that everyone in the vicinity of the laser or anywhere the beam
(or its reection) may be is fully aware of the safety issues and has proper
eye-wear.
Provide visible and unambiguous indications that the laser is powered and
the beam is on.
A kill switch is essential and should be located far enough from the laser
tube so that it is accessible in an emergency even if a total meltdown is in
progress!
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For owing gas lasers, provide adequate ventilation. While the lasing gases
(helium, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide) are not toxic, and not very much is
involved for laser operation, a leak in the gas delivery system could go
undetected. CO2 in particular is heavier than air so it will displace air in an
enclosed space which may result in various symptoms from nausea to
asphyxiation.
Where maintenance or repair is involved, be aware of the properties of the
specic materials used for the optics and elsewhere. For example, the
biohazards of zinc selenide and beryllia. See the additional safety info in
the section: Home-Built CO2 Laser Safety.
Acrylic, polycarbonate and glass are all quite opaque to CO2 laser light.
However, if plastic is hit with enough of the beam, it will burn through. You
might not think this would happen unless you decide to put your window
directly in the beam path, but I've seen plenty of windows damaged by the beam
reecting o the work or from xturing.
Speaking of beam blocks and burning through things.... Take the following with
a grain of possible exaggeration. :)
(From: Steve Roberts.)
I have a friend who was working on a 3 kW CO2 laser at a job shop, they were
running the optics train in test mode with the interlocks defeated and left the
folding mirror assembly o, so the beam shot out and quickly went through a
steel door, two cement/berboard walls, and partially through a cinder-block
wall before they realized their mistake. He even claims it lased quite well when
a factory tech left a large monkey wrench inside the resonator. I wouldn't have
believed it till I heard a second tech back up his story. Needless to say I never
turn my back on him while he's in my lab!
It must be nice to have that kind of single pass gain, because the argon lasers I
work on can wink out if you even just lean on the unit and slightly stress the
resonator or have even a invisible amount of crud on the optics.
(From: Leonard Migliore (lm@laserk.com).)
That doesn't sound quite right. Even a 3 kW beam has to be focused to get
through steel. Cement is even more resistant. Did it take them an hour to
realize their mistake?
It's your typical plasterboard wall. I couldn't remember the word 'plasterboard'
late at night when I wrote that. I have watched a 60 watt doubled Q-switched
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YAG go through them unfocused about a foot from the wall, so I can see a hot
CO2 beam going through it easily enough. The laser in question is a Mitsubishi
workstation with recirculating owing gas.
The monkey wrench part is pretty reasonable. When I was at Spectra-Physics,
we made this great big 5 kW laser called a 975 (the head weighed 9000 lbs).
People were always dropping pens, tools and hardware into the cavity, which
was such that you didn't want to take it apart enough to get the stu out. This
never seemed to bother the things.
One day, we sold our lab laser to a French customer (Yes, we told them it was
used). This required disassembling the laser to put in 50 Hz blower motors.
When we did this, we found several pounds of garbage sitting in a quart of
vacuum pump oil (pump failure some time before). The laser had been
operating perfectly, delivering 6 to 7 kW maximum power with a swamp under
the resonator.
This is a righteous piece of industrial hardware.
Reasons to Choose a CO2 or Nd:YAG Laser

There are major performance dierences between Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers. One
reason is that Nd:YAG light is emitted at a wavelength of 1.06 microns in the
near infrared, while CO2 light is emitted at 10.6 microns. The material
interactions at these wavelengths dier. Most organics don't absorb 1 micron
light very well, while they absorb 10 micron light. So, non-metal processing is
generally a CO2 application. Metals are more reective at 10 microns than at 1
micron, so CO2 lasers only weld eectively in the "keyhole" mode, where the
irradiance is high enough to generate a vapor channel in the workpiece. Once
you get into keyhole mode, the high average power of CO2 lasers makes high
speed welding possible. For small spot welds, Nd:YAG lasers are far more
controllable.
Also, since there are a lot more Nd atoms in a YAG rod than there are CO2
atoms in laser gas, Nd:YAG lasers can deliver much higher peak powers than
CO2 lasers. This makes them better for drilling. Conversely, since it's hard to
cool a solid rod, Nd:YAG lasers have problems with high average powers. You
can build a CO2 laser with very high power; Convergent has commercial 45 kW
units, and much bigger ones have been built.
It's usually pretty clear if a given application is best done with Nd:YAG or CO2.
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There are a few areas where either ( or neither) are equally good, but, in
general, the application areas are quite separate.
Commercial Nd:YAG lasers are available with powers up to 4 kW (continuous)
or so. Pulsed Nd:YAG lasers have lower average powers but have much higher
peak powers.
CO2 lasers are generally used for cutting materials like stainless steel because
they can, in general, be focused to smaller spots, which improves cut quality.
You can focus a 1 kW CO2 laser to a 100 micron spot. A 1 kW YAG is generally
used with ber optics for beam delivery and can't be focused smaller than 400
microns or so.
You might expect that since the output beam from a Nd:YAG laser has a
wavelength 1/10th that of a YAG laser, a YAG will focus to a smaller spot.
However, this assumes equivalent beam quality - which the YAG does not have.
At the power levels required for material processing (note that the context here
is metal cutting), YAG lasers have terrible beam quality (M 2 can be 50 or 70), so
they can't be focused as well. The culprit is the YAG rod, which is heated by the
pump lamps and exhibits thermal lensing.
Gas lasers don't have as big a problem with thermal lensing, so you can make
them real big and still get good beam quality. Self-focusing of a CO2 beam is
also seldom seen. What is common in the beam path is defocusing (a beam goes
into a pipe 20 mm in diameter and comes out 200 mm wide) and mirages (a
beam goes into a pipe round and comes out semicircular).
There's no problem with absorption of light from either a Nd:YAG (1.06
microns) or CO2 (10.6 microns) laser in nitrogen, or in air without
contaminants. In practice, air has variable percentages of CO2 and water vapor
and also tends to contain hydrocarbons, all of which absorb 10.6 um light.
Both Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers are used for welding stainless steel, with CO2
lasers being used for high speeds welds.
BTW, you might come across the term: "uence" in conjunction with materials
processing lasers. Fluence is used to characterize pulsed laser processing, and
is the energy of a single pulse divided by the area being aected. Thus, if you
have a 20 joule pulse focused to a 1 mm spot, the uence is 20/0.78 or 25
J/mm2, except that everyone uses J/cm2.
Comments on CO2 Laser Eiciency

Until the advent of the diode laser, the CO2 laser was by far the most eicient
laser in existence. Why?
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(From: Professor Siegman (siegman@stanford.edu).)

It's been quite a while since I looked at this, but as I recall:
1. Plasma discharge (or any form of heat input) quite eicient at setting N2
molecules in He-N2-CO2 gas mixture vibrating.
2. Vibrating N2 molecules are symmetric, hence can't radiate their
vibrational energy away eectively, hence these vibrations have very long
lifetime.
3. Vibrational frequency of N2 molecules coincides very closely with ground
to upper laser level (E1 -> E3) transition frequency in CO2 molecules;
hence N2 molecules transfer very large fraction of their vibrational energy
to pumping CO2 molecules in the laser gas mixture up to upper laser level
E3 via simple collisions.
4. Leaving aside complexities of molecular spectra, CO2 molecule is simple
"pump on E1->E3, lase on E3->E2" system -- and pump frequency (= N2
vibration frequency) is only about twice the CO2 lasing frequency
(From: Harvey Rutt.)
Well Tony may not have looked at it for a while, but thats an excellent summary!
Some extra points of detail: Re point one, an important aspect is that the cross
section for exciting N2 by electron impact is high at electron energies which
can be obtained in a nice stable discharge, & that at those energies very little
else gets excited. (Look at a multi-kW CO2 laser discharge - it is a pretty faint
glow; very little goes into useless electronic states.) CO2 & N2 molecules that
do end up in higher vibrational states (and lots do; these modes have
temperatures of a few thousand K) tend to cascade down very eiciently & with
minimal energy loss into the upper laser level. The collision cross sections are
such that vibration of the N2/CO2 coupled modes can be at several thousand K
while rotation and translation can stay not far above 300K; the electron energy
is funneled to where you want it.
And re point 3, that the lower laser level, E2 in the above can be rapidly
depopulated, partly because you have two levels in Fermi resonance close
together + a third nearby, partly because two of these three are 'overtones' of
the bending vibration, & that (plus helium collisions) is a fast 'route down'.
Another useful fact is that CO2 lasers have reasonably high gain, so that
eiciency is not too sensitive to small losses, and that the system is essentially
free of parasitic losses such as excited state absorption (ESA.) In fact the gain is
somewhat anomalous, because this is a 'dierence transition' in which *two*
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states change their quantum numbers, & generally such transitions are quite
weak, this one being stronger than the usual rules of thumb would suggest.
It also happens that CO2 is 'almost' mono-isotopic ~99% 12C16O2 (13C, 17,
18O are quite rare, less than ~1%) which also helps. And because 16O has no
nuclear spin, half the rotational levels are absent, which ~ doubles the gain
compared to if 17O happened to be the common isotope.
Overall, no one single factor; a combination of helpful circumstances come
together in one molecule. The spectroscopically closely related N2O laser is far
less eicient for example. (Although N2O is NNO, not NON, which reduces the
symmetry.)
I think you will nd the *original* CO2 laser (CKN Patel?) had no N2 in it and
was pretty pathetic.
Comparison of CO2 and Nd:YAG Lasers for Industrial

Applications
(From: Richard W. Budd (rbudd@ibm.net).)
Basically you have a choice of 2 basic families of lasers: CO2 or Nd:YAG (usually
shortened to just YAG). For the time being only these 2 families of lasers have
the eiciency and output power to do large-scale material processing e.g.,
cutting, cladding, drilling, surface hardening, welding, etc. There are major
dierences between the two types and both have advantages and disadvantages
that must be considered based on the job to be performed or the materials
being processed.
CO2 lasers and YAG's produce very dierent wavelengths and beam shapes.
CO2 lasers are gas lasers that use carbon dioxide as the lasing medium. YAG's
are solid-state lasers that use the element Neodymium (the Nd) diused in a
crystal of Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (YAG) as the lasing medium. CO2 lasers
emit at a wavelength of 10.6 microns (far-infrared), while YAG's emit at 1.06
microns (near-infrared, just below the visible red). Because of these dierent
wavelengths some materials are better absorbers (or reectors) of the 2
dierent beams. Aluminum is fairly highly reective to the CO2 beam and
requires almost 40% more power to cut as opposed to the beam from a YAG - to
a beam from a YAG aluminum is almost a perfect absorber. On the other hand,
most carbon steels and stainless-steels absorb CO2 and YAG beams pretty much
the same - very well.
Beam shape. Here there is basically no comparison: Virtually all CO2 lasers
produce a beam that is far, far, more symmetrical and even than ANY
industrial-class YAG laser.
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CO2 lasers generally produce either a dot-mode or a ring-mode beam

which focus down to either a single point or a very tiny, even ring.
YAG lasers produce what's called a multi-mode beam - the energy prole
resembles a shotgun blast - a random collection of dots in a circular
pattern.
The beam shape is important: Think of a lathe. If you use a ne pointed cutter
you produce ner, more precise cuts with less force needed to cut in to a given
depth. If you use a bull-nose bit you take out a much larger piece of metal with
a corresponding drop in the depth you can achieve with a specied amount of
force.
Peak and average power. CO2 lasers are usually operated in continuous mode
while YAG lasers are pulsed.
Where the CO2 laser really shines is in pure raw power. Typical industrial
CO2 lasers produce between 500 to 5,000 watts. The most common 3
power classes are 500 W, 1 kW, and 2.5 kW. There are CO2 lasers available
that can produce 10 kW for days at a time. The largest known laser for
industrial use produces 120 kW continuous (for up to 1 hour at a time) - it's
located at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard and is used for welding
aircraft carrier hulls. It's capable of doing a full-penetration weld 12" deep
at 100 IPM. This laser is also huge - about the size of a 3 bedroom house.
Where the YAG makes up for being multi-mode is that they achieve
incredibly high peak-powers. Virtually all industrial YAGs are ran in a pulse
mode with peak powers between 10 to 150 kW (though average power is
usually less than 500 W). This peak power can overcome the surface
reectance of most materials with ease, but the low average power mean
slow cutting or welding feed-rates.
Beam delivery. Here there are very signicant practical dierences:
Getting the beam to the work for YAG lasers is easy as the 1.06 micron
wavelength is transmitted by common materials. Thus, YAG beams can be
run through ber-optic cables which can be handled much like wire.
So far no viable material has been found to act like a ber-optic conduit for
the beam from a CO2 laser. Because of this, CO2 beams must be
transmitted through the air using a system of mirrors. However, for beam
delivery, there may be some special bers using material which transmits
mid-IR without very high loss - only a few percent/meter.
Operating considerations. As was said before, CO2 lasers are gas lasers and
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YAGs are solid-state lasers. Gas lasers are very rugged - the material that
actually makes the beam is a gas and therefore cannot be damaged. Solid-state
lasers use a crystal to generate the beam. These crystal rods are very expensive
- several thousand dollars for an industrial size laser. If the laser is improperly
tuned or operated the crystal can be almost instantly destroyed. Overall
eiciency (wall plug to optical output) diers greatly:
Gas lasers supply energy into the gas with an electric discharge traveling
through the gas. This direct energy transfer (pumping) contributes to very
high eiciency: a CO2 laser typically has a discharge eiciency of 15-25%.
Solid state lasers use a "pumping" source to supply energy to the crystal
rods. Typical pump-sources are ashlamps or high-power laser diodes. The
light from these ashlamps or laser diodes is focussed into the sides of the
YAG rods, which in-turn is absorbed by the rods which then emit the beam.
The record for lamp-pumped YAG eiciency is 2%, less than 1% is typical.
Furthermore, the ashlamps have a denite lifetime - usually around 1
billion shots. At a typical pulse rate of 200 pps (pulses-per-second) that
translates to 1,389 hours of operating life. Running at reduced power will
extend the lamps life by up to 20%.
Laser-diode-pumped YAGs are another story. These devices are achieving
some very impressive eiciencies. For small (less than 10w) lasers, total
eiciency is usually greater than 50%. Vastly larger industrial-class
versions producing more than 1kW are slowly beginning to appear. Some
of these units are sporting the same eiciency of the equivalent sized CO2
lasers.
Safety considerations. Electrically, both types of lasers can be EXTREMELY
dangerous. Both use high-energy, high-voltage circuits. Servicing must be done
by qualied personnel. However, there are signicant dierences with respect
to optical hazards:
In this area, CO2 beams are much safer. The wavelength of a CO2 beam is
10.6 microns, a wavelength that is strongly absorbed by water. As the
human body is mostly body is mostly water, an unfocused or reected CO2
beam does not penetrate beyond the 1st few layers of skin. More
importantly, this wavelength does not penetrate the eye if a scattered beam
is observed. Processing can usually be directly observed with minimal
precautions. Laser-safety eye-wear is normally suicient to meet
government guidelines.
YAG beams have a 1.06 micron wavelength - just below the visible
deep-red. This wavelength deeply penetrates the body. If you get hit by a
YAG beam, there is more damage than just a surface burn. Worse, the 1.06
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micron wavelength is focussed by the eye just like "normal" light. A beam
scattered from a process WILL be focussed to a point in the eye, probably
destroying the spot where it focussed. As such, all YAG workstations MUST
be sealed o and light-tight during processing.
Operational Hazards with CO2 Lasers

One big area of hazard is that CO2 lasers are used for material processing. They
do a great job of cutting plastics. Unfortunately, the by-products of laser
processing of organics generally include very hazardous materials. Carcinogens
such as benzene and PAH's (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are typically
generated in reasonably signicant quantities. Certain materials have even
better surprises: You get cyanide out of Kevlar and HCl out of PVC. It's hard to
handle this stu, and the associated solids tend to clog lters. Don't cut plastic
(any kind) without a fully-enclosed system that exhausts into scrubbers.
Metal cutting has some other hazards, although nothing is as bad as plastic.
Cutting stainless steel generates carcinogenic Cr (VI), generally in amounts
greater than allowed by OSHA. Most particles generated in gas-assisted laser
cutting have diameters around 1 micron, which is the worst size for your lungs
as they can get all the way to your alveoli and clog them.
Welding (you can make a nice weld with a 200 W CO2) generates fumes too,
and also generates UV light from the weld plasma. Your glasses can protect you
from the CO2 light but pass enough UV to give you a burn (This is, of course, a
much bigger problem with multi-kW lasers. I have gotten sunburned skin from a
5 kW welder)
Another issue is that, if you sell a laser, you must comply with the FDA's
regulations as specied in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter J
because you have become a "system supplier". Sell a system without the right
paperwork and the Feds can drag you away in chains. If you just build
something and use it yourself, you don't need to follow these regulations. It is
safer, however, if you do make an eort to comply with the physical
requirements of the code such as beam guards, warning lights and safety
interlocks.
Detecting or Locating CO2 Laser Beam

(From: Larry (lhh@nac.net).)
There are several ways to nd out where your CO2 laser beam is:
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The simplest is to use Scotch Tape or a piece of paper in the beam. The laser is
turned on for an appropriate length of time, and the burn pattern tells you
where the beam is. This is also quite useful for locating the focus point of a lens
illuminated with a CO2 laser.
The second way is to use phosphor plates manufactured by Optical Technology.
A UV light illuminates the phosphor, which is coated on a metal plate. The
phosphor glows in the visible. However, where the 10.6 micron CO2 laser light
strikes the plate, the phosphor is deactivated. So the position of the beam
appears as a dark spot on a glowing plate. Phosphor plates of dierent
sensitivity are available.
The last way is to use a co-axial red alignment laser. The Synrad CO2 laser that
I use routinely has one of these, and it makes life much simpler when you are
aligning systems of mirrors, etc. However, one caveat. Zinc selenide is
commonly used for CO2 laser optics - lenses, beamsplitters, beam combiners,
etc. It has the advantage that it passes both CO2 laser light and the red light of
the alignment laser. But the dispersion of zinc selenide is dierent at the two
wavelengths, so if you are o-axis, the focal point of the red laser and the CO2
laser will be slightly dierent.
(From: Je Glee.)
If it is possible to lower the beam power to the single watt range, a Post-it
makes a great beam locator. The dye used to color the paper is temperature
sensitive, and darkens when hot. Depending on the intensity used, it may be
necessary to attach the post-it (I used 3M spray adhesive) to a thin aluminum
plate (less than 0.1") to help dissipate excess heat and prevent ames. Dierent
color Post-it's react dierently, but the best I have found is the bright pink color.
Visually, it is about the same eect as you see on commercial uorescent plates.
I have yet to try it at higher than about 2 watts with a 5 mm beam, but given
suicient thermal dissipation (thicker backing, or copper instead of aluminum),
higher intensities should be viewable without burning.
On-Line Introduction to CO2 Lasers

There are a number of Web sites with laser information and tutorials.
One of the best so far is the CORD Laser/Electro-Optics Technology Series,
Cord Communications, 324 Kelly Drive, P.O. Box 21206, Waco, Texas
76702-1206.
Module 3-9 CO2 Laser Systems - goes into considerable detail on
the theory as well as some more practical information related to diode
lasers.
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Module 4-2 Gas Laser Power Supplies - covers the general

requirements and includes some nice block diagrams and sample
circuits.
See the section: On-Line Introduction to Lasers for the current status and
on-line links to these courses, and additional CORD LEOT modules and
other courses relevant to the theory, construction, and power supplies for
these and other types of lasers.
MEOS GmbH is a developer of laser educational materials and equipment
(among other things). Their Download Page had the lab/study manuals for
their courses on a wide variety of laser related topics. While designed to be
used in conjunction with the laboratory apparatus which they sell, these
manuals include a great deal of useful information and procedures that can
be applied in general.
Several modules would be of particular interest for CO2 lasers.
Unfortunately, the on-line manuals (in PDF format) have disappeared from
the MEOS Web site. But I have found and archived most of them:
EXP01
EXP03
EXP06
EXP09
EXP20
EXP27
Emission and Absorption.

Fabry-Perot Resonator
HeNe Laser
Carbon Dioxide Laser
Laser Safety
Bar Code Reader
If MEOS should complain, these will have to be removed. So, get them
while you can! But I doubt they'll complain. And most are also archived at
the Wayback Machine Web Site.
Also see the section: General Laser Information and Tutorial Sites for other
sites that may be worth visiting.
Links to Information on CO2 Lasers

For an introduction to CO2 laser technology, see:
Understanding CO2 Lasers provided courtesy of Laser Kinetics, a
consulting company specializing in (among other things) laser cutting,
welding, heat treating, and materials processing. This is a somewhat
technical but quite understandable pair of papers on the principles of
operation, design, and optimization of CO2 lasers. The Web page also
provides links to other industrial CO2 laser information including it use in
cutting, welding, and heat treating.
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Parallax Technology, Inc., a manufacturer and servicer of CO2 laser tubes

and systems has some Photos of CO2 Laser Tubes showing typical sealed
CO2 tube construction at their web site.
Synrad, a leading manufacturer of CO2 lasers, has a variety of information
on-line including general CO2 laser information, Manuals, and Datasheets
for their lasers.
The Brookhaven National Labs - Tabletop Terawatt Picosecond CO2 Laser
Project is a somewhat unusual form of a CO2 laser to say the least!
Types and Excitation of CO2 Lasers

Basic Principles of Operation
(Portions from: David Crocker.)
The physical arrangement of most CO2 lasers is similar to that of any other gas
laser: a gas lled tube between a pair of mirrors excited by a DC or RF
electrical discharge. Metal coated mirrors (e.g., solid molybdenum or a gold or
copper coating on glass or another base metal) may be used for the high
reector (totally reecting mirror). However, at the 10.6 um wavelength, a glass
mirror cannot be used for the output coupler (the end at which the beam exits)
as glass is opaque in that region of the E/M spectrum. One material often used
for CO2 lasers optics is zinc selenide (ZnSe) which has very low losses at 10.6
um. Germanium may also be used but must be cooled to minimize losses for
high power lasers. Other materials that may be used for CO2 laser optics are
common substances like NaCl (rock salt!), CaCl, and BaFl (but these are all
hydroscopic - water absorbing - so moisture must be excluded from their
immediate environment).
Many details dier between a 50 W sealed CO2 laser and a 10 kW Transverse
Excited Atmospheric (TEA) owing gas laser machining center but the basic
principles are the same. While HeNe lasers are based on excited atoms and ion
laser use ions, CO2 lasers exploit a population inversion in the vibrational
energy states of CO2 molecules mixed with other gases.
Additional gases are normally added to the gas mixture (besides CO2) to
improve eiciency and extend lifetime. The typical gas ll is: 9.5% CO2, 13.5%
N2, and 77% He. Note how He is the largest constituent and CO2 isn't even
second! (This also means that leakage/diusion of He through the walls and
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seals of the laser tube may be a signicant factor is degradation of performance

and/or failure of a sealed CO2 laser to work at all due to age.)
The CO2 laser is a 3-level system. The primary pumping mechanism is that the
electrical discharge excites the nitrogen molecules. These then collide with the
CO2 molecules. The energy levels just happen to match such that the energy of
an excited N2 molecule is the energy needed to raise a CO2 molecule from from
the ground state (level 1) to level 3, while the N2 molecule relaxes to the
ground state. Stimulated emission occurs between levels 3 and 2.
The metastable vibrational level (level 2) has a lifetime of about 2 milliseconds
at a gas pressure of a few Torr. The strongest and most common lasing
wavelength is 10.6 um but depending on the specic set of energy levels, the
lasing wavelength can also be at 9.6 um (which is also quite strong) and at a
number of other lines between 9 and 11 um - but these are rarely exploited in
commercial CO2 lasers.
Here are some of the more subtle details. (Skip this paragraph if you just want
the basics.) As well as the 3 energy levels of CO2 I referred to, there is actually
a 4th involved, about midway between the ground state and level 2. After
emitting, the CO2 molecules transition from level 2 down to this 4th level, and
from there to the ground state (because a direct transition from level 2 to the
ground state is forbidden by quantum rules). Level 2 is actually a pair of levels
close together, which is why there are 2 separate frequency bands that a CO2
laser can operate on, centred around 9.4 um and 10.4 um (i.e., just above and
just below 30 THz). Each of these bands is actually composed of about 40
dierent vibration/rotation transitions with frequencies spaced about 40 GHz
apart. The strongest transition is the one called 10P(20), which is about 10.6
um, so a CO2 laser with no tuning facilities normally operates at this
wavelength. It is possible to select a particular transition (and hence frequency)
using a diraction grating instead of one of the mirrors. The exact transition
frequencies were known to an accuracy of about +/-50 kHz back in 1980.
The helium in the mixture serves 2 purposes: (1) He atoms collide with CO2
molecules at level 2, helping them relax to the ground state; (2) it improves the
thermal conductivity of the gas mixture. This is important because if the CO2
gets hot, the natural population in level 2 increases, negating the population
inversion.
Cooling of the gas mixture is critical to achieveing good power output. The gas
at the centre of the tube is hottest and loses heat by thermal conduction
through the surrounding gas to the walls. As the gas pressure increases, the
thermal conductivity gets worse. So with a smaller tube, the gas pressure can
be higher. This is why the power available from a properly-designed CO2 laser
depends on the length of the tube but not the diameter (i.e., smaller diameter
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tube = higher pressure = greater density of CO2, which compensates for the
smaller diameter).
Types of CO2 Lasers

Although there are many types of structures for CO2 lasers, the most common
are probably:
Axial gas ow. The gas mixture is pumped in one end of the tube and out
the other. This provides fresh gas to replace the (CO2) depleted due to
dissociation of the gas molecules. He and N2 are added to the mixture to
boost eiciency.
Power output is typically 40 to 80 W per meter of tube length (more or less
independent of tube diameter). Folded optical systems may be used to
reduce the total physical length of the laser. This approach is practical for
output powers of up to a couple of kW.
Transverse gas ow. Instead of owing down the tube, the gas ows across
it providing the highest power ratings for continuous CO2 laser operation.
Power outputs of 10 kW per meter are possible with Transverse Excited
Atmospheric (TEA) designs. The much higher pressure results is much
more available lasing medium - and thus much higher power for a give size
laser.
Sealed tube. The structure of these is very similar to that of sealed HeNe
and Ar/Kr ion lasers but with features (bore diameter, etc.) geared to much
longer C02 wavelength.
Power output of sealed CO2 lasers ranges from a few watts to perhaps 100
W (maybe more).
The most common types of excitation are a direct electrical discharge (usually
DC) and radio frequency (RF). Either current control or pulse width modulation
can be used for power control (since this does make sense for a CO2 laser output power is directly related to tube current).
To boost power output and provide some redundancy, some CO2 laser have
multiple separately excited discharge tubes which are optically combined. For
example, Synrad Model 48 Seris, a 50 W sealed tube CO2 laser, actually has a
pair of 25 W tubes and each tube has 2 RF drivers. Thus, a failure of a single
tube or driver will result in at most a 50 percent drop in output power but not
total failure.
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Detailed specications, mechanical drawings, and product manuals, may be

dowloaded from Synrad's Product Page.
Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers

This was the way the earliest CO2 lasers were constructed. The tube was not
sealed but required an active pumping system and gas supply to operate. Such
lasers are very easy (in a relative sort of way) to construct (see the chapter:
Home-Built Carbon Dioxide Laser). Many older medical lasers of this type are
now becoming available surplus at attractive prices. These have maximum
power outputs in the 20 to 100 W range. See the section: Descriptions of
Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers for some examples of commercial units.
More modern CO2 lasers in this power class - and up to about 500 W - feature a
low or zero maintenance sealed tube. However, very large (e.g. kWs to 10s of
kW) still use a owing gas design.
(Portions from: Flavio Spedalieri (fspedalieri@nightlase.com.au).)
Controlling the output power of a owing gas CO2 laser is done with a
combination of discharge voltage and gas ow. As the voltage increased, the gas
ow must also be increased and visa-versa.
A Variac may be used for voltage control. Even many commercial CO2
lasers have used a manual or motorized Variac and neon sign transformer
or phase control of a neon sign transformer for this.
A control valve (manual or electrically operated) is used to adjust the rate
of gas ow into the laser.
In commercial lasers, the tube voltage is either mechanically or electronically
coupled to the ow valve or ('witty valve' as it is known). As you increase the
voltage, the ow valve is opened in proportion to the power setting.
Sealed CO2 Lasers

Commercial sealed CO2 lasers have much in common with sealed HeNe lasers.
However, you can't just take an axial ow CO2 design, seal it up, and expect the
laser to work for more than a few minutes. The discharge process breaks down
the CO2 to produce CO and O2 which quickly poison the lasing process. There
ARE a number of solutions to this problem including the addition of other gases
like H2 or H20 (water vapor) to the gas mix to react with the CO and O2 to
regenerate CO2 or the use of a high temperature (300 C) cathode to act as a
catalyst to stimulate recombination.
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(From: Dr. George Wood.)

"There is a catalyst speccally developed by NASA for ambient
temperature conversion of CO to CO2 during laser operation. This
catalyst, available from STC Catalysts, Inc., has reduced operating
costs as much as 75% in some applications."
The typical sealed CO2 tube has an operating voltage of between 3 and 12
kV at 2 to 15 mA DC. Some may require 20 kV at 20 mA or more (see the
specs below). (The corresponding values for HeNe tubes are: .6 to 5 kV at
3 to 8 mA DC.)
A high starting voltage is required to initiate the discharge. For HeNe laser
tubes, the actual value is typically 3 to 5 times the operating voltage with
the manufacturer's specications being somewhat higher to assure reliable
starting. I have not been able to nd equivalent info for sealed CO2 lasers.
The value of the negative resistance of the CO2 discharge is between
-200K and -600K ohms. (The corresponding value for HeNe tubes is about
-50K ohms). The eective ballast resistor value is selected to be 30 to 50%
higher than this to assure stability.
Therefore, requirements for the power supply to be used with sealed CO2 and
HeNe lasers are very similar. However, due the signicantly larger negative
resistance characteristic of the CO2 laser, there is more incentive to push part
of the eective ballast resistance into the control of a switchmode inverter
rather than a simple power wasting resistor.
For example, the dissipation in a 300K ballast resistor at 10 mA, would be 30 W.
Depending on your actual needs, this may still be acceptable since it should
simplify the power supply design not to have to deal with the negative
resistance in the current regulator feedback loop itself. However, at the high
end of the range where an 800K ballast is required at 20 mA of operating
current, the corresponding power dissipation would be - ready? - 320 W! This is
probably a bit more than is desirable. :-)
Finding inverter schematics for HeNe lasers is tough enough. Finding them for
C02s is virtually impossible. Most of the CO2 power supply schematics of any
kind I have are based on neon sign transformers for use with home-built CO2
lasers. See the sections beginning with: Introduction to Home-Built CO2 Laser.
They have no regulation but may be an alternative at least for initial testing.
However, there is a description of one, the Universal Voltronics BRC-30-25-S, in
the section: Typical Power Supply for a Sealed CO2 Laser.
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The good news is that if you were to design an inverter type of power supply
with an oversize or multiple yback transformers, I think you would nd that it
inherently had a high eective series resistance - possibly enough so only a
minimal external ballast would be needed.
The starting voltage is no problem - that can use any of the approaches for
starting higher power HeNe tubes.
Here are specs for a couple of larger sealed CO2 laser tubes. These and similar
internal mirror tubes have been appearing on the surplus market and via eBay
recently, supposedly originally for a medical application.
Maximum
Supply
Output
Beam
Voltage
Tube
Tube Size
Power
Diameter
Start Operate
Current Diam/DLgth/TLgth
--------------------------------------------------------------35 W
1.5-2 mm
30 kV 10 kV
7-25 mA
2.35"/24"/31"
120 W
??? mm
40 kV 25 kV
10-30 mA
3.20"/52"/60"
(DLgth is discharge/gas reservoir length corresponding to the rather large

diameter listed; TLgth is total length which includes the much narrower tube
extensions and mirror mounts.)
Varying the tube current controls output power (I don't know whether the lower
values are at threshold or the relationship is more or less linear). Both these
tubes are water cooled, either via a chiller/recirculator or straight from the tap.
One thing that is signicantly dierent for a CO2 laser compared to the HeNe
variety is eiciency: The electrical to optical eiciency of a typical small sealed
CO2 laser is around 5 to 8 percent compared to less than .1 percent for a HeNe
laser. However, the eiciency of large (owing gas) CO2 lasers can exceed 20
percent.
Some photos and specs of typical larger sealed CO2 laser tubes (those for which
specs are listed above and others) can be found in the Laser Equipment Gallery
(Version 1.68 or higher) under "Assorted Carbon Dioxide Lasers".
For more information on sealed CO2 lasers and a home-built design, see: Plans
for a Sealed CO2 Laser.
See the section: Power Supplies for CO2 Lasers for additional comments.
(From: David Crocker.)
The best eiciency is only achieved when tube diameter and gas pressure are
optimal. For example, the optimum gas pressure for a sealed CW CO2 laser
using an 8 mm inside diameter glass tube (cooled to room temperature by a
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surrounding water jacket) is about 14 Torr.

For tubes of dierent diameters, the plasma scaling laws for CO2 laser
operation work as follows, where D is the tube diameter or waveguide cross
section:
Optimum gas pressure varies as 1/D.
Optimum current density varies as 1/D and thus the total current varies as
D.
Discharge voltage per unit length then varies as 1/D.
Power input and laser output per unit length are then independent of D
(ignoring waveguide losses, in the case of waveguide lasers).
Tunability about each individual transition varies as 1/D
This assumes that the temperature of the inside wall of the tube is the same
regardless of D. In practice, small glass tubes perform worse because there is
less surface area (but constant power), hence more temperature drop between
the inside and outside of the wall (another reason why ceramic waveguides
work better then small diameter glass tubes).
Transverse Excited Atmospheric (TEA) CO2 Lasers

One problem with electrically excited axial CO2 lasers is that there is an upper
limit to the gas pressure at which a discharge can be maintained. This is well
under 100 Torr. Unlike helium-neon and many other gas lasers, the CO2 laser
will operate up to atmospheric pressure (and probably beyond) with gain/power
output proportional to pressure. Thus, 10 to 20 times more power would be
possible running at 1 atm.
Most high power (kWs) CO2 lasers are constructed using TEA (Transverse
Excited Atmospheric) designs. Rather than having a long tube with a electrical
discharge along its length and the CO2 gas mixture owing from end to end, a
series of electrodes and gas inlets are spaced along the tube. In this manner,
higher pressures can be used since the electrical discharge doesn't need to go
the full length of the tube - only across it. And, fresh gas can ow to all parts of
the tube and doesn't get depleted along the way.
TEA lasers must operate pulsed (a continuous discharge can't be maintained at
higher pressures) and due to the shape of the cavity, the output beam has a
rectangular cross-section. Gas ow is a major design consideration since the
intense electrical pulses are very eective at destroying and rearranging
chemical bonds.
For more information on TEA CO2 lasers, see the CO2 laser manufacturers links
in the section: Laser and Optics Manufacturers and Suppliers.
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Also see the comments on home-built TEA CO2 lasers in the section: Home-Built
Transverse Excited Atmospheric CO2 Lasers.
(From: Paul M. Brinegar, II (montyb@pulsar.hsc.edu).)
Basically, you have a chamber with CO2 laser gas in it. The gas is at
atmospheric pressure (hence the "A" in "TEA"). Two electrodes run down the
length of the chamber, one on the left side, one on the right. These electrodes
are connected to a capacitor bank which, when discharged, sends a spark/pulse
across the gap inside the chamber. The pulse excites the CO2 laser gas, which
then begins spontaneous emission. A reector and an output coupler outside
the chamber form the resonating cavity. The "TE" in "TEA" comes from the fact
that the excitation is performed transverse to the direction of the laser output,
as opposed to down the length of the tube like in the CO2 lasers being built by
folks on this mailing list.
The problem with TEA lasers is that the high voltage pulse causes the CO2 gas
in the laser gas mixture to dissociate into CO and O2. If you don't ow new gas
into the chamber or recirculate the dissociated gas through a catalyst to
recombine the molecules, you limit the pulse rate of the laser. For high rep-rate
TEA lasers, it is not uncommon for the gas to ow at many many many meters
per second through the chamber.
I have worked with two TEA CO2 lasers. The largest one had pulses that were
about 1-2 microseconds long, and the rep-rate was about 10 pulses per second.
It was tunable to any one of about 69 CO2 emission lines centered around 10.6
microns. The strongest lines had output energies of about 150-200 millijoules
per pulse. The output cross section was square instead of round since the laser
used two parallel (or almost parallel) electrodes. After passing through some
collimation optics, the beam diameter was about 3 centimeters, and the energy
density was low enough (measured using calibrated instrumentation) that you
could safely put your hand into the beam when it was ring single pulses. It felt
like a mild electric shock when the beam struck your hand. When the beam was
focused to a point in space, it would cause a spark to appear in mid-air. I
suppose the electric eld from the beam exceeded the breakdown voltage of the
atmosphere and resulted in a bit of ionization. When focused onto a black
anodized surface, the laser pulse would vaporize the anodized coating, resulting
in little jets of ame.
(From: Harvey Rutt (h.rutt@ecs.soton.ac.uk).)
CO2 TEA lasers operated with a normal gas mix typically produce a 'spike and
tail' output, with ~~1/3 of the energy in the ~~100nS spike, and 2/3 in the few
hundred ns to 1 us 'tail'. The 'spike' is a gain switched feature - the 'tail' from
v-v transfer from the N2.
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If the laser is operated with reduced nitrogen the tail goes away; you throw
away about 2/3rds of the energy. If the laser has a short cavity, and is fairly
heavily coupled, the spike shortens.
The exact numbers are very system dependent of course.
It is quite easy to get approximately 50 ns pulses with no tail. The small
Edinburgh Instruments commercial mini TEA laser does just that (we have one).
Slab Type CO2 Lasers

The big problem with getting power out of CO2 lasers is that when the gas mix
gets hot, the power goes away. Hence, fast-axial and transverse-ow lasers,
which use mechanical blowers to run the gas through heat exchangers.
The fundamental concept of a slab CO2 laser is that you can extract heat from
the laser gas without any moving parts by having a pair of planar water-cooled
electrodes separated by a small gap. The laser gas is RF-excited by these
electrodes.
This is swell for exciting the gas mix but miserable to extract power from; lasers
want to have round beams, not slits (except diodes, but their beams aren't any
good anyway).
To get around this, the Ron-Sinar lasers use a Tulip resonator (named for its
inventor, not its shape) which has an unstable resonator in one axis and a
waveguide resonator in the other (!!). Power is extracted o of one side of the
slab. The actual output that comes o of this is strangely shaped, but external
correcting optics and knife edges produce something that looks and works
amazingly like a Gaussian beam. The Slab series is described on Ron-Sinar's
CO2 Laser Products page. There are nice cutaway drawings of the lasers
showing the way they work under the "Principle" links.
The smaller (50 to 500 watts) Coherent Diamond(tm) lasers use the same
conguration and are completely sealed. I'm not sure why the big Ron units
need the external gas ll since the Diamonds seem to run for years before they
lose power. Maybe it's harder to seal a big cavity,
Waveguide CO2 Lasers

(From: David Crocker.)
Instead of using a tube with slightly concave mirrors to form the cavity, an
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alternative is to use a waveguide and at mirrors. This works better than a tube
if you are using small diameters. The waveguide is made from a ceramic such as
beryllium oxide (highly toxic!), alumina, or hexagonal boron nitride, with a
round or square shaped hole for the gas. For example, we used a 300 mm long
waveguide of hexagonal boron nitride, bore 1.4 mm square, total gas pressure
between 50 and 220 Torr, current between 2 mA and 4 mA. The discharge was
in 2 sections, driven in parallel from a 20 kV power supply. We also made a
waveguide laser using a length of precision bore glass tubing.
The whole point for us was to be able to tune the lasers a little (about each of
the 80 or so centre frequencies) which is possible when running at higher
pressures.
RF Excited CO2 Lasers

CO2 lasers can be operated using radio frequency (including microwave)
excitation instead of a direct electrical discharge but this results in more
complex resonator/electrode congurations, more complex driving electronics
and additional safety issues. Depending on the size and type of laser, maximum
achievable power output and eiciency may be lower as well.
However, There ARE many eicient, compact RF excited lasers on the market.
For example, the Coherent Gem Select 100 is a water cooled sealed tube RF
excited waveguide CO2 laser using a folded rsonator. Its rated output power is
100 W but typically produces 120 W. The laser is only about 7" (H) x 8" (W) x
31" (L) and weighs under 52 pounds including power supply, and runs on 200 to
240 VAC at 14 A max.
It is possible to make an RF-excited CO2 laser with the electrodes in the form of
broad plates that are closely spaced. With such a conguration, the gas mix can
be eiciently cooled by the electrodes. This is diusion cooling.
Of course, the discharge area is poorly shaped for power extraction by stable
resonators, so these lasers use complex resonator designs. The Tulip resonator,
used by Ron-Sinar and Coherent, has a waveguide mode in one axis and an
unstable resonator in the other.
(From: David R. Whitehouse, manager, Laser Advanced Development Center
Raytheon Co., Waltham, MA).)
Although the CO2, N2, and He discharge can be operated either with DC, AC,
RF, or pulses, it appears that the maximum average output power can be
achieved either with DC or low frequency AC applied directly to the electrodes.
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The power is less with RF, probably because it is hard to keep a long length of
the discharge uniformly excited. Where the discharge must be pulsed, the
average power may be only 1/10th to 1/8th of the DC value. Also, the optimum
pressure and output coupling conditions change."
Gas Dynamic CO2 Laser

(From: Mike Poulton (tjpoulton@aol.com).)
A gas dynamic CO2 laser essentially uses a rocket engine as the exciter. :) The
propellants are burned to create a very high velocity, high pressure, high
temperature stream of gases (nitrogen and CO2) in a lase-able ratio. As the
exhaust expands through a nozzle, the temperature of the gases drop very
rapidly. The lower energy levels are rapidly and selectively depopulated (aided
by trace chemicals introduced into the combustion chamber exclusively for that
purpose) while the upper energy levels (populated because of the high
temperature of the gases in the chamber) remain energized. Presto - an instant,
complete population inversion. After a time delay determined by the relaxation
time of those upper energy states, the stimulated emission begins. The optical
resonator cavity is positioned a certain distance beyond the throat of the nozzle
(determined by exhaust gas velocity), so as to initiate the lasing process at the
proper time.
These lasers are quite diicult and expensive, but produce tremendous beam
power. I know this information because I have talked with an engineer who
worked on the design and construction team for several of these ranging from 1
kW up to 100 MW CW for the Star Wars project. He said building a huge rocket
engine and 100 million watt laser at the same time was the most fun he's ever
had. :)
Comparison of DC and RF Excitation

(From: David Toebaert (olx08152@online.be).)
One of the reasons RF is promoted for high-power fast-ow CO2 lasers is that
you don't have internal electrodes that tend to sputter and contaminate the
resonator optics. In the begining, DC fast-ow lasers were, due to the large
pressure drop resulting from the inlet section design, necessarily equipped with
modied roots blowers, which were not very leak-tight, contaminated
everything with oil, gave pressure pulsations. And RF was more eicient
because they could use "standard" turbines which run smoothly and are oil-free.
Nowadays, turbines are also available with increased volume ow at higher
pressure ratios, and so they are used for DC lasers, eliminating this
contamination problem. A good design of cathode also reduces sputtering
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contamination a lot, and there you have it: DC excited lasers are at least as
eicient (>20% HVDC in to optical power out). So now another matter arises:
HVDC is WAY cheaper and more eicient (electrical to electrical) than RF.
One unavoidable loss with DC excitation is the cathode fall - the voltage drop at
the cathode which results in heat dissipation and doesn't contribute to the
discharge. However, there is also a sheath region for RF excitation and it's
distributed over the entire outer surface of the discharge, not localised at a
single electrode. It shrinks with rising RF frequency, but then the oscillator
becomes more expensive. Anyhow, for DC, the cathode fall is only a few
hundred volts for a discharge voltage of many kV, so it's not that signicant.
There is a large dierence between fast-ow, slow-ow, and sealed o operation
of CO2 lasers. If you operate sealed o (as I guess Peter Laakmann does), then
a very complicated plasma chemistry takes place involving dissociation and
recombination, interaction with wall and electrode materials etc. Almost all
sealed o lasers use at least a quarternairy mix, or even one with ve
constituents (H2O or H2 , CO , or Xe are mostly added). That way, after a series
of burn-ins, bake-outs, rells etc one ends up with a tube that can have up to
10,000 hours lifetime. But it also reduces the gain because the mix is not
optimised for maximum output, but for long life.
I don't think there is a fundamental reason why RF should lead to less eicient
laser operation (at MHz frequencies, the vibrational kinetics can't follow the
electric eld anyhow). If you compare apples with apples, e.g., a fast-ow 3 kW
RF excited Trumpf with a DC excited 3 kW laser - Ron, WB, mine :), the total
discharge volumes are comparable. If you insist on getting as much power as
possible out of a given total discharge volume, RF might be a little favoured
because you can go higher in power input per cm3 discharge without
deteriorating the glow discharge. Gain will drop because of higher average
temperature, but at rst this will be over-compensated by the increased input.
But it won't do any good to the beam quality, so for cutting applications it's a
no-go.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's necessary to rst decide what your
laser specs are to be (what are the crucial things? Beam quality? Power?
Compactness? ....) before choosing RF or DC, sealed or owing gas, etc.
Power Supplies for CO2 Lasers

While there is little information on power supplies for helium neon lasers in the
public domain, there is even less for CO2 lasers.
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Some (probably older) commercial designs have used the ultimate low-tech
approach of a neon sign (luminous tube) transformer and Variac! See the
section: Description of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers. These are simple
and robust, but don't make optimal use of the available power. Phase control of
the primary (in place of the Variac or even a motor driven Variac!) could be
coupled with tube current sensing to provide regulation.
For testing of DC excited sealed CO2 laser tubes up to perhaps 2 feet in length,
an oil burner ignition transformer (typically 10 kV at 15 to 20 mA) or neon sign
transformer (12 to 15 kV at 15 to 30 mA) is more than adequate. Even running
half wave rectied with a few (depending on peak voltage) microwave oven HV
rectiers, or 30 or 40 1N4007s in series, will produce a substantial fraction of
rated power. I tested a 14 W tube using a 10 kV, 20 mA oil burner ignition
transformer and a pair of microwave oven HV rectiers. The laser produced at
least 8 W of beam power. Note that for this low current, the discharge is not
very bright. If you're used to HeNe lasers, don't be fooled into thinking the tube
isn't working as it burns a hole through your wall and the neighbor's. :)
Except for smaller sealed CO2 lasers where only a few mA are required, linear
approaches are probably way too ineicient to be practical. (See the section:
Sealed CO2 Lasers), Scaling up a HeNe laser power supply design for use with
a CO2 tube requiring 100 mA at 10 kV isn't realistic. A linear pass-bank would
need to use multiple 1,000 V MOSFETs or 1,000 V deection type bipolar
transistors and dissipate 100s of watts to achieve an adequate compliance
range with all sorts of fault sensing to protect them from excessive current or
short circuits. However, as noted, for small sealed CO2 lasers, this approach
could be used.
An inverter is the most viable option for higher power CO2 lasers. Regulation is
provided by PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) of the switchmode transistor drive.
This permits the ballast resistance to be much smaller as the loop response
provides most of this function.
Like most other gas discharge devices, the CO2 laser tube exhibits a negative
resistance when excited directly (e.g., DC or low frequency AC). Therefore, a
higher starting voltage (perhaps 10 to 30 kV) is required to ionize the gas and
then a lower voltage (perhaps 1 to 3 kV) will sustain the discharge. A variety of
approaches can be used to provide the starting voltage including: a voltage
multiplier and capacitor discharge into a pulse transformer or other pulse
technique. An external RF source (even if it isn't used for the main excitation,
see below) or even ultra-violet (UV) light can reduce the starting voltage
requirements. With DC excitation, starting is only required once. However,
where line frequency AC is used for the main supply, starting must take place
on each half-cycle resulting in an output power spike followed by a period of
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normal output 120 (or 100) times a second.

Where DC excitation is used with a owing gas CO2 laser, if the starting voltage
is insuicient, the pressure can be reduced until the gas breaks down, and then
increased for operation.
RF and microwave excitation can also be used for excitation and can be very
eiciently coupled to the discharge. No additional means for starting is required
for these.
And, of course, chemical reactions for the gas dynamic type. :)
One starting point for nding more information on CO2 laser power supplies
would be a patent database. Search for major CO2 manufacturers like Synrad
or keywords like "CO2 laser power supply" or just "CO2 laser". While you won't
nd complete plans in most patents, some have a remarkable level of circuit
detail.
If anyone has any CO2 laser power supply schematics (beyond the basic
manually regulated neon sign transformer variety), I would be happy and eager
to add them to this document. Please send me mail via the
Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Typical Power Supply for a Sealed CO2 Laser
The Universal Voltronics BRC-30-25-S power supply is designed to drive CO2
laser tubes of up to about 35 W of optical output requiring up to 200 W input.
The unit provides a starting voltage of more than 30 kV with an operating
voltage of around 20 kV at up to 25 mA of tube current. I imagine that a power
supply for larger tubes (up to 120 W or more) would have a similar design. It is
a fairly simple switchmode type that appears to be based on the AC line
front-end of a PC power supply, jumper selectable for either 115 VAC or 230
VAC (the typical doubler/bridge conguration). A half-bridge MOSFET chopper
provides 300 V p-p to a high voltage transformer that looks sort of like a large
TV yback (though its internal construction is unknown). Voltage/current
control is via pulse width modulation using an SG3525 chip coupled to the gates
of the MOSFETs via a drive transformer with two output windings driven on
opposite phases of the PWM waveform.
The output of the high voltage transformer feeds a rectier and then the CO2
laser tube without any additional components. So, there is no ltering or ballast
resistance.
There are separate control loops for voltage and current:
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Voltage control: An auxiliary winding on the HV transformer feeds a

bridge rectier and lter capacitor which provides a feedback voltage
proportional to the output voltage of the power supply.
Current control: The HV return passes through a sensing resistor (with a
lter capacitor) providing a voltage proportional to tube current.
The two loops are virtually identical and include an op-amp buer, error
amplier (which is basically an integrator), and reference with potentiometer
for setting the reference sensitivity to external input. The outputs of the loops
are ANDed together (with diodes) and feed the pulse width control input of the
SG3525. Whichever reference setting/input is lower takes precedence. Thus,
the power supply will maintain the tube current at the value selected by the
current select input (which controls the reference) with the constraint that the
power supply output voltage doesn't exceed some selected maximum value or
vice-versa. At least, that's they way it appears. :)
There is also an overload protect circuit which disables the SG3525 (shutdown
input) upon detection of a fault (presumably, a short circuit).
There are inputs for controlling tube current (0 to 10 V or an external 5K ohm
pot) and for remote turn-on/pulsed operation (5 VDC).
A photo of the BRC-30-25-S can be found in the Laser Equipment Gallery
(Version 1.68 or higher) under "Assorted Carbon Dioxide Lasers".
Someday, I may get around to entering the schematic for all to enjoy. :)
Electrical Modulation of a CO2 Laser

Low frequency modulation can be achieved by pulsing or chopping the
electrical power to the discharge. As the frequency is increased, the eect of
the varying input decreases and above a few kHz, disappears entirely. The
output of a DC or RF excited CO2 laser are both CW beams.
This remark really holds for any kind of CO2 laser (the eect gets worse at
higher pressure). It's just nature: it takes time for the molecules to 'meet' one
another causing the delay. For a laser at 100 mbar (around 76 Torr) and a
typical gas mix, the cut-o frequency is about 3 kHz. Above that the modulation
of the input power is strongly damped and hardly visible anymore in the output
power. Simply think of the discharge as a low pass lter for the input power, no
matter how you excite the discharge. Of course, it's possible to modulate the
input power at much higher frequencies (e.g. an RF supply can easily be
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modulated up to 100 kHz, that is, the Mhz signal is modulated at 100 kHz), but
from the point of view of wanting to modulate output power, it makes no sense.
Maybe it's benecial for other reasons (e.g., discharge stability).
Gas Fill
You might think that a CO2 laser uses, well, CO2. However, a CO2 laser using
only CO2 would be very ineicient. Other gases, mostly nitrogen (N2) and
helium (He) are required to achieve any decent level of performance. The N2
molecules are raised to a high vibrational state by electron collisions (in
electrically excited CO2 lasers). Collisions between the N2 molecules and
ground-state CO2 molecules then excite the CO2 molecules to the upper lasing
level. The He serves as a buer gas and provides for cooling, principally
achieved by collisions with tube walls, which must be maintained at no more
than a modest temperature, often by owing water.
Composition and Pressures for CO2 Lasers

(From: Paul (paulfr@lineone.net).)
I am bulding a low ow axial type CO2 laser and I have a question about the
lasing gas. It is a mixture of 9.5% CO2, 13.5% N2, and 77% He.
Would an error in the mixture of the gas cause a lower output power or would it
stop lasing? What tolerance do I need on the mixture? Can I increase power by
increasing voltage and/or gas ow rate of the system?"
(From: John Szalay (john.szalay@postoice.worldnet.att.net).)
Yes, mixture is very important. It takes very ne tweaking.
In our slow ow system, power is a function of current, not voltage. Starting
voltage is 25 kVDC and drops to 13 to 15 kV once laseing is steady. We run both
fast and slow ow systems. Slow ow takes pains to set mixtures while fast ow
system uses a preset mixture from the factory and is not normaly adjusted in
the eld.
(From: Richard. A. Kleijhorst (r.a.kleyhorst@student.utwente.nl).)
The power of the laser is dependent of several things. First thing is the current
and the gas mixture. The higher the current, the higher the power (up to the
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saturation point). You can check it out yourself : why do you need just these
three gases (CO2, N and He)to make the CO2 laser work. The energy of the
discharge is rst absorbed by the Nitrogen (that's also the "pink" discharge
color which you see in the tube), the Nitrogen transfers the energy to the CO2
molecule and the heat that arises is carried to the "wall" by the Helium. Second
thing, where the voltage comes in, is the length of the discharge. The longer the
discharge length, the more power, but also the more power you need to start
the discharge (ignition). Further is the gas ow also of importance. The more
"fresh" gas is present and "old" gas renewed, the more power (if possible you
could consider building a fast ow CO2 laser). Also other factors like the gain,
inversion population, resonator design, cooling and the output coupler mirror
have to be taken in account when you want your laser to give the most power.
All these things are to read in more then enough available books.
Gas mix has a tremendous eect on power. That looks like too much CO2 to me.
You would probably get more power with 7% CO2 and 18% N2, but you
generally have to establish the optimum CO2: N2 ratio by tweaking anyway. I
usually start at low CO2 and increase it. The power goes up until a saturation
point. Beyond that, the excess CO2 absorbs photons and the power drops.
Increasing nitrogen increases the voltage. You get more power with more
voltage until the discharge breaks down.
(From larkinsg@solix.u.edu (Dr Grover Larkins):
CO2 lasers operate at reduced pressures with a CO2, N2, and He gas mixture.
It's been a while but I seem to recall that 1:2:3 CO2:N2:He worked OK at
roughly 1/2 an atmosphere (Ratios are MOLAR not Pressures!!!!). They can also
work at higher pressures but tube limitations (strength and window mounting)
play a role - 4 Watts is plenty of power to damage eyes, etc. Caution is
advised!!!
(From: David Knapp (david@stella.Colorado.EDU).)
DC discharge CO2 lasers run 30 to 80 torr (1 torr = 1/760 of an atmosphere,
one atm is 14.7 psig). RF driven CO2 lasers can run from 30 torr to over 120
Torr for waveguide operation.
Also, PV=nRT, and for any gas, we have 22.4 liters/mole so number density is
proportional to pressure anyway.
(From: David Toebaert" (olx08152@online.be).)
Fanuc uses a strange gas mix of 5:40:45 (CO2:N2:He) in their fast-ow lasers. I
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don't understand it entirely, it seems an awful lot of N2, far above the optimum
CO2/N2 ratio. Of course, it would allow to couple very much energy into the
gas, so maybe the greater input over-compensates the lower eiciency?
However, it should be of no use in a slow-ow laser (to little cooling capacity).
Better stick to a lot of He for those.
Why is There Carbon Monoxide in Some CO2 Lasers?

(From: Ngiam Shih Tung (stngiam@pacic.net.sg).)
My company recently bought some Lumonics lasermark lasers which are
supposed to be CO2 lasers, but I was surprised to see that it contains half as
much carbon monoxide as carbon dioxide. Specically, the Lasermark IV premix
gas contains 4% CO and 8% CO2 in He and nitrogen.
Why would Lumonics include CO in what is supposed to be a CO2 laser? This is
a continuous ow laser, and as far as I know, lasing only takes place at the CO2
wavelength. I've ipped through a number of laser textbooks, but none of them
mention anything about deliberately adding CO to CO2 lasers. I did nd out that
CO2 will dissociate to CO during the discharge, and that CO lasers exist, but no
mixed CO/CO2 lasers were mentioned.
(From: Andrei Romanov (anrom@aha.ru).)
It is well-known problem: dissociation of CO2 to O2 and CO in lasers with closed
chamber. Some devices have special regenerators of mixture. But I believe that
Lumonics added CO to gas mixture especially to make stable chemical
composition of mixture and, hence, to make stable output power. So there is
also reaction CO + O2 = CO2.
(I worked in 1982-1990 in Gas Lasers Laboratory of the P. N. Lebedev Physics
Institute, USSR Academy of sciences, Moscow.)
(From: Harvey N Rutt (hnr@ecs.soton.ac.uk).)
It is quite common to include some CO in CO2 lasers, athough 50% CO is higher
than I've seen before.
As you point out, in the discharge a chemical equilibrium is set up:
CO2>2CO+O2.
If you add CO you push the equilibrium to the left, less CO2 >dissociates, you
keep more of the active laser gas in its correct form, so to speak. It happens
that the CO vibrational level is close to the N2/CO2 sym. stretch level, & can
fullll a similar role to N2 in the >mix (not quite as well.) Oxygen on the other
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hand tends to lead to discharge instability & more problems with electrodes.
So many CO2 lasers work better with a little CO in the mix; just how much
depends on the details of the laser. It wd *probably* work without any CO; up
the CO2 & the N2 a bit to compensate; but you wd loose some power, & might
have discharge stability problems.
CO of course is very toxic, & cummulative over many hours, so some people
dont like using it.
(From: Andrei Romanov (anrom@aha.ru).)
In the discharge there are a lot of other processes. There are also other
componets: molecules N2O, O2, CN etc, ions O3(-), O(-), CO3(-) etc., excited
molecules and atoms. To calculate all processes is not possible in theory. The
chemical composition is dened by experimental investigation only.
I remember when a group in our laboratory tryed to improve CO-laser by
adding small quantity of N2O in 1989. Theorists had some ideas about it. They
did not receive good result in CO-laser but suddenly they obtained a very high
power lasing in this mixture on levels of N2O molecules (10,8 microns). The
output power of the laser was of the same order that usual CO-laser has.
(From: Harvey N Rutt (hnr@ecs.soton.ac.uk).)
While I would agree these other processes certainly *exist*, they are of very
minor importance compared to the basic CO2 chemical equilibrium, and have
relatively little eect on the laser. It happens that in the past I made extensive
measurements of nitrogen oxides etc in big CO2 lasers; their main eect related
to discharge stability & electrode corrosion processes, they are too low level to
have much eect on the laser kinetics.
The situation in CO lasers is very dierent to that in CO2; a low gain laser,
notoriously touchy on gas purity etc, with a quite dierent pumping mechanism
(anharmonic collisional up-pumping & direct e impact as opposed to v-v
resonant transfer).
So while I wouldnt disagree with what is said above, it does not alter the basic
reasons your mix includes CO!
Incidentally, just to further complicate things, a very few CO2 lasers actually
add O2 to the mix; again it suppresses the dissociation of CO2 and production of
CO, the odd thing is you'd think it would wreck discharge stability! For
completeness, Xe is often added to small sealed CO2 lasers (not big, costs too
much.) Basically it tailors the electron energy distribution in the discharge &
improves the pumping eiciency.
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(from: Leonard Migliore (lm@laserk.com).)

When I was at Spectra-Physics, we added oxygen to the gas mix of DC-excited
transverse ow lasers. These had big, water-cooled copper pipes for cathodes,
and the oxygen slowed down the formation of oxides on the copper. I am not
sure if anyone really knew the mechanism of this eect, but it did work.
About the High Cost of Sealed CO2 Laser Rells

This is a somewhat dierent situation than for, say argon/krypton ion or
helium-neon lasers where a large part of the cost is due to the incredibly high
level of purity and elimination of all traces of residual gases and any other
contamination.
They have a right to their trade secrets. A gure like $800 to reprocess a CO2
laser tube is cheap, especially when you consider a sealed CO2 has a very tricky
gas mix, often containing Xe, CO, NO2, H20 and half the rest of the chemical
alphabet. A sealed CO2 laser needs a complex mix in order to recatalyze the
CO2, which breaks down into CO and C during the discharge. If it's a few tenths
of a percent o, the laser quickly dies. Often when relling a tube, they also pop
on a new front optic, something not easy to do when you need new indium seals.
You didn't pay literally millions of dollars to develop those lasers, therefore you
are only entitled to learn from published documents, patents, talking to others
and whatever reverse engineering you can do, and even then possibly only for
your own use. The high cost is because a company needs to make a prot to
exist and improve, and people need to eat and pay bills.
(From: Sam.)
For some information on sealed CO2 laser construction and the catalyst issues,
see U.S. Patent #4,756,000: Discharge Driven Gold Catalyst with
Application to a CO2 Laser.
CO2 Chemical Laser

Here's an interesting twist on the usual boring CO2 laser. The following is the
abstract of the paper entitled "CO2 Laser Using Electrochemical
Transformation of Organic Compounds" by K. Midorikawa, H. Tashiro, and S.
Namba, Applied Physics Letters 44 (4), 15 February, 1984:
"A novel CO2 laser using electrochemical transformation of organic
compounds (ECTO) has been developed. CW CO2 laser action was
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obtained by applying an electric discharge to the air, which contained

organic vapors such as alcohols and benzene derivatives. The CO2
molecules produced by the chemical reaction in the laser tube and the
N2 molecules contained in the air was excited by the discharge. The
ECTO CO2 laser produced an output power of 7 W, which was
comparable to the power obtained from a conventional CO2 gas
mixture."
WARNING: Before you try this experiment at home, don't forget that certain
concentrations of organic vapors and air are just a bit explosive! At least, go
read the entire paper rst. :)
Optics
A Discussion on CO2 Laser Optics
(All questions from: Ray Abadie (rabadie@bellsouth.net).)
"I am planning the conversion of a medical 35 W CO2 laser system for
light duty CNC cutting of wood up to 1/8" thick. The unit is complete
and functional except it has no nal optics. The plan as it stands is to
eliminate the articulated arm and remount the now vertical tube
(bean up) vertically (beam down) or horizontally. The unit is of the
owing gas, water cooled variety. I have the design of the electronics
for coupling of the drive subsystem of the movable table to the pulsing
of the laser pretty well down but the optics are giving me ts (guess I
should have paid more attention to college physics). The laser is to be
stationary, mounted either vertically (beam down) or horizontally with
a 45 degree mirror "bend".
First a general question. Generally speaking are laser tubes particular
about their orientation?"
Tubes don't care but some other components, notably the cooling system, often
do. I don't like vertical tubes in a owing gas laser because dirt collects on the
bottom mirror.
(From: David Knapp (david@lolita.colorado.edu).)
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In general (IMO) yes. If you mount the optical axis vertically you risk having
particulates fall onto the bottom optic. Some lasers are designed to have less of
a problem with this (RF excited have less problems with "junk" in them).
"I understand that for minimal loss the front surface mirror at the 45
degree bend should be of a material appropriate for far-IR operation. I
have heard copper, is this correct?"
Copper is highly reective at 10.6 microns but the normal bend mirror is coated
silicon. With the right coating, you get much better reectivity than copper and
it doesn't tarnish in air.
AR coated copper can be excellent, so can protected gold and dielectric
enhanced silver on silicon, the latter of which should be your cheapest bet.
"The desired cutting action should produce as vertical a cut as
possible (i.e., minimum "coning" of the beam) of the minimum width
practicable. To minimize the beam diusion eect of the smoke I
intend to use a vacuum table for workholding (which should suck
away some of the smoke) and experiment with a Nitrogen shield.
What nal optics would yield the desired results?"
That depends on the initial beam characteristics of the laser. If the beam waist
diameter, beam waist location and beam divergence are known, then the focus
spot and Rayleigh range may be calculated for any focal length lens.
Unfortunately, the smaller the spot, the greater the divergence. For 1/8" wood,
you can generally get a 0.01" kerf that's pretty straight with an f/8 or so lens.
"I have read that optics for use in this region of the spectrum and at
these power levels must be specially coated (ZnSe?)."
Zinc selenide is a substrate rather than a coating. Very few materials transmit
10.6 micron light and ZnSe is one of the best. Since its index of refraction is
quite high, it has to be coated with stu like thorium ouride to be useful.
Coating is "insurance" that you pay to keep damage possibilities lower and to
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make your optics cleanable. They do not *need* to be coated, and ZnSe is
generally used an tramissive optical element for 10 microns. I'm not sure what
the state of the art is in coating dielectric materials. GaAs maybe?
Your biggest challenge is going to be supplying clean, dry air to your delivery
optics to keep them from getting munged.
"Finally, does anyone know of an aordable source for the optics (and
possibly tje mirror)."
CO2 optics tend to be expensive because of the materials required. One
rlatively inexpensive source is Directed Light in San Jose. I'm reading this at
home and I don't have their phone number, but it should be easy to get.
Email me with any other questions that come up as you proceed with this
project and I'll try to answer them.
Edmund Scientic sells some. Check out Laser Focus World at your library.
There are many companies advertising for Mid/Far-IR optics.
(From: Sam.)
Leonard Migliore (lm@laserk.com) is with Laser Kinematics provides consutling
services in the areas of cutting, welding, and heat treating.
What Materials Pass or Block the CO2 Laser 10.6 um

Wavelength?
"I need information on plastics which will pass and block 10,600nM
far infra red from a CO2 laser. Personal experience shows Perspex
(Methyl Methacrylate) blocks that wavelength extremely well and is
ideal for a viewing port to watch the laser at work cutting wood, etc.
But I also need a plastic (or easily machinable glass) that I can use to
pass the IR with minimal attenuation so I can keep smoke and spatter
o the ZnSe lenses."
Every plastic or glass that I know of has signicant absorption at 10.6 um. The
only classes of materials that have good transmission at that wavelength are
semiconductors such as ZnSe and ionic crystals like KCl. International Crystal
Laboratories sells a product they call "Lens Saver" which appears to be a salt
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(KCl) window. Their phone number is 1-973-478-8944.

You may experience some loss of focus quality if you put a window in front of
your lens. Most CO2 cutting systems incorporate some form of air shield to
keep smoke o the lens, even if they don't use it as an assist gas.
(From: Neil Main (neilmain@micrometric.demon.co.uk).)
As far as I know, there are no cheap materials.
ZnSe is very good. NaCl, sodium chloride is often used as an anti-spatter
window in welding. Some of the other alkali/halides also work. The advantage is
that they are cheaper than ZnSe (but still not cheap), the disadvantage is that
they are hygroscopic.
The other technique is to use air pressure / vacuum to blow/suck the fume away
before it hits the lens. Air knives (laminar ows of high velocity air) are good
positioned just below and across the front of the lens.
(From: Chris Chagaris (pyro@grolen.com).)
I think the only material you will nd that will pass this radiation and is
inexpensive will be salt windows. Janos Technology sells disposable salt
windows for just such an application.
Required Mirror Diameter for CO2 Laser Beam Steering

You usually want the clear aperture to be at least 1.5 times the beam diameter.
And, if you're bending the beam 90 degrees (using a 45 degree mirror), you
have an increase of 1.4X because of the angle of the mirror. So, the mirror
should be at least twice the diameter of the beam.
The smallest diameter mirrors I know of for CO2 lasers are 1", although you can
order smaller ones, I suppose. So, even if your beam starts out at only 1.5 mm,
you still need a minimum of 3 mm and might as well use 1" (25 mm) mirrors
unless space is critical.
Another thing that needs to be taken into account is that while the beam may
exit the laser at 1.5 mm (in this example), it won't stay that small for long. If the
laser is TEM00, it will have a divergence of 9 milliradians, so the diameter will
increase to 9.1 mm at a distance of 1 meter. If the initial beam diameter is 15
mm, the divergence will be 1/10th as much or less than 1 mR. Then after 1
meter, its diameter still be less than 17 mm.
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Reective Optics for CO2 Lasers

Reective optics are very common for high-power CO2 applications. There are a
lot of 5 kW and larger lasers doing production welding. If you use lenses in
these things they don't last long because of weld spatter. Once anything gets on
the lens, the high power beam heats it and the lens is garbage. So, you just
diamond-turn a paraboloid and it focuses the beam quite well, although they are
very sensitive to angular misalignment. The combination you describe sounds
like a welding head with a at mirror and then a 90 degree deviation
paraboloid; the at is just there so the beam is collinear with the incoming
beam, making it possible to focus without moving the location of the spot.
The paraboloids are generally made of copper, which is easy to turn, reects
10.6 micron light real good, and can be cleaned with a shop rag and metal
polish when the weld debris gets too thick (I said this was production welding).
I once had a few made with a sputtered molybdenum coating. Those things
were really tough. You couldn't scratch them or burn them but bare copper is
nearly as good. I've seen gold-coated copper but I don't know why anyone would
use it, as the coating can get damaged and soon you're down to copper.
Polarizing Optics for CO2 Lasers

(From: Juozas Reksnys (rexnys@uj.p.lt).)
Polarizers for CO2 laser can be made from:
1. Two Ge plates V-placed (polarization degree aproximately 98%, losses less
than 5 percent, angle of view 4 degrees). The same with ZnSe plates can
be achieved. Using several pairs of plates extinction can be increased till
500:1 for ZnSe or 3000:1 for Ge.
2. Plates of NaCl, KCl, BaF2 or others low refractive index material
X-congured and coated with Ge lm. Using multibeam interference
polarization degree in such device 99.8% can be achieved.
3. Polarising prisms can be made from Cinnabar (HgS) or GaSe (very
expensive) birefringent crystals. Both crystals have absorption less than
0.07 cm-1 and are not t for a high power CW beam.
Furthermore polarizers can be air or water cooled for HP applications. 0.1 mrad
is small quantity and therefore is necessary to avoid noises of radiation in beam
, beam displacement on detector etc.
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CO2 Optics Cleaning

Since CO2 lasers operate at a wavelength 10 times longer than most other
common lasers, there are a variety of materials used in their fabrication
including some that would be aected or even dissolved in water or other
common solvents normally used for the cleaning of hard coated glass optics.
Not only may there be soft coatings, but the substrate may be easily damaged
as well. Therefore, it is essential to be know exactly what is safe for your optics.
The best source for this information is obviously the manufacturer of the laser
or optical components in question.
Cleaning is most critical for higher power lasers. Whereas a dirty HeNe optic
will just result in reduced or no lasing, in a 1 kW CO2 laser, a dirty window or
mirror could actually be destroyed by the absorption of the beam energy. And,
inside the resonator, IR ux may be several times higher than in the beam
delivery system.
Detergent and water may be acceptable for metal or metal coated mirrors but
pure alcohol, acetone, or other anhydrous solvent would be needed for soft
coated optics (e.g., the HR or beam delivery mirror) or those fabricated from a
water soluble or hydroscopic material (e.g., salt windows).
Laser Beam Products has some general info on Cleaning of Lenses and Mirrors
for CO2 (and other high power) lasers.
Many of these materials are also substantially more fragile and susceptible to
damage than normal optical glass. For example, Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) is a
crystal very commonly used for CO2 laser lenses and windows. Great care must
be exercised in its handling, mounting, and cleaning. Apply uniform pressure
when handling/mounting. Tools like tweezers must be avoided because this
material easily scratches, cracks, and chips. Latex gloves or nger cots should
be worn for handling and cleaning to avoid contaminating the substrate or
coating. (Paraphrased from the Edmunds Scientic Industrial Optics Catalog.)
(From: Chris Chagaris (pyro@grolen.com).)
The best method of cleaning any optic............ is to avoid contamination in the
rst place. Dust should be simply blown o with a jet of compressed dry air or
nitrogen. If the optic requires further cleaning the 'drop and drag' method
would be recommended, using a high quality lens tissue or lint free cotton
swabs made especially for this purpose (which I prefer) and spectroscopic
grade methanol. The solvent soaked swab is dragged under it's own weight
ONLY, slowly across the optic. The solvent at the leading edge will dissolve the
dirt; the trailing part of the swab will absorb the resulting solution back o the
optic. This should be repeated several times. It is important that the solvent is
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absorbed back onto the swab and not allowed to dry into a tide mark of
concentrated dirt. Change the swab every time, as fresh solvent will absorb the
contamination better and particles picked up in the swab cannot be repeatedly
dragged back across the optic ngerprints on any of your optics, as these can
be particularly damaging to the coatings and are very diicult to remove. Avoid
ANYTHING that may scratch your optic!!!
Marking, Burning and Cutting Lasers, Costs

Marking/Engraviing Lasers
If you want to make white marks on black or color anodize, a low-power (like 10
watts) CO2 laser does a good job. You get better control if the laser can be
pulsed but it's possible to make it work CW.
If you're bleaching the anodize only, not much power is required. If you want to
mark the aluminum itself, you'll want about 104 W/cm2 of Nd:YAG.
Small Wood Burning Lasers

"I'm looking for a laser which is suitable for engraving wood under the
control of a PC. I have some of my own bas-relief sculptures scanned
in 3D that I would like to transfer to wood furniture panels as a
serious hobby.
What type of laser would be appropriate? What power level must I
consider? What cost can I expect? Where do I start looking for such a
beast on the used market?"
Companies such as Laser Machining, Inc. (now Preco, Inc.), Laser Cut, Inc., and
Jamieson Manufacturing (jamieson.mfg.co@snet.net), all make systems that will
cut plywood, but they vary in table size, laser power and cutting performance.
(From: Ron Wickersham (rjw@crl.com).)
A CO2 laser is most commonly used for wood cutting and decorating.
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I suggest that minimum 100 watts be considered, certainly no less than 25.
A used machine may not really be the best for you. In the last year or so,
sealed-o lasers in the 100 watt range have become available with lifetimes of
approx 10,000 hours. If you go with a used laser that has to be pumped down
and supplied with CO2, N2, and He then you get into a lot of auxiliary
equipment that will be priced in addition to the cost of the bare laser.
Additionally, the size of the used laser, power supply, etc will be huge compared
to a new one which will be compact and light.
You can then consider moving the laser head itself around under computer
control to do the wood burning. With a larger used laser, you will have to buy
additional beam-delivery optics that are also expensive and will require
extremely critical alignment. As a rst-time builder of a machine you will have a
very high learning curve and make a lot of costly mistakes if you go that route.
Another thing that you must consider. The laser itself will have a beam that may
be around 1/4 to 1/8 inch diameter. To get to the tiny, hot spot that will do the
cutting, you use a lense to focus the energy. But the smoke from the burning
wood will ruin the lense in a few seconds so it has to be encased in pressurized
chamber with a tiny exit hole that blows a compressed gas out the same hole
the nearly focused beam emerges from, mthus keeping the smoke away from
the lense. The depth of focus is small if you use a short focal-length lense and
the power density is not as high if you use a long focal-length lense. So you may
need to use the applications department of your supplier to help you with your
rst machine. Or work with someone who has an existing machine and learn
everything about it before you undertake to build a system from scratch.
Some place around two watts of visible light would be a good start for wood
cutting if you only want a pinhole. The only problem is that unless you have a
thin sheet of wood, a tightly focused beam, and assist gas of some sort, you can
end up with a charred edge very quickly. I have actually used a 2x4 as a beam
stop for a 10 watt argon ion laser. You get about 30 seconds of smoke and re
and then a nice deep pile of charcoal forms and the burning stops. When a 1 kW
CO2 is used for engraving wood, it leaves a clean slightly fused edge in cuts up
to 1/8th inch deep in the factory I toured. If you want a pinhole all the way
through a 2x4, you are going to need serious power, a variable depth zoom and
focus and after a heck of a lot of trying, you'll quickly go buy a thin drill bit. :-)
Keep in mind that lasers don't cut a perfectly straight edge, they cut a tapered
hole because of focusing. But 10 to 15 watts of CO2 would be good for cutting
model airplane parts out of balsa wood.
Depending on the assist gas, you can get wonderfully clean cuts in wood with
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only a faint char layer along the cut. The char often doesn't look black, it's more
of a cherry brown color, very distinct. Surgical CO2s work well for this,
considering they have a nice delivery system in the form of the surgical arm.
Just remember to do 2 things: (1) Add an assist gas jet to the delivery tip and (2)
set up a cross wind to blow the reaction products out of the work area.
Otherwise you can expect to be blinded and poisoned by a noxious high velocity
cloud of smoke and tar, which is what happened to me the rst time I cranked
the power up. At low power (few watts) this wasn't a problem but when I dialed
up 30 watts and focused into some pine, I got nailed by a hot jet of nasty
combustion products.
You really need a needle valve on the assist. High pressure air works well as a
start.
I have a beautiful commercially laser engraved sailboat on my desk, burned
3/16" deep by an industrial CO2 laser. The image was created by an etched
brass mask in sitting in front of the wood. The wood passed through the beam,
which was focused into a line, on a moderately fast conveyer belt. I still love the
looks serious woodworkers get on their faces when they see it has no tool
marks. :)
Model airplanes are a booming business, with balsa wood job shops even
oering to take CAD drawings and cut parts for a very reasonable fee. There
even is an o-the-shelf CO2 laser cutting system that does this for sale for about
$15,000. And there is one heck of a market for this now that modern mass
production has got the RC radios down to $200 or less and the engines to $69,
or even better, the electric motors and rechargeable batteries now available.
With balsa, you can go from CAD to aerodynamic simulation to production in a
day or two using modern PCs and a laser.
Large Wood Cutting Lasers

CO2 lasers can be used in a factory under controlled conditions for production
wood cutting. However not everyone agrees on their capabilities. Here is a
short discussion:
(From Randy (xoxthorxox@aol.com).)
I am currently operating a 1,500 W Amada LasMac 1212 Pulsar Laser. I have
been able to cut 1/2 plywood at 350 inches a minute at 1/4 power (Power: 700,
Frequency: 1,000, Duty: 35%, Assist gas: 3 kg shop air).
Works great. I experimented on a cut out of the Harley Eagle. It is very detailed
and I was able to maintain razer sharp corners of up to 120 degree planes from
the zero point. It is possible to cut virtually anything on the right laser. but the
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key there is "the right laser" I would recommend a CO2 laser of 1000 watts or
better for optimum performance. But since you are talking about a quarter of a
million dollar machine, you might want to look around for other advice. Good
luck to you :).
(From: Master Elf (helper@toontown.com).)
This guy Randy is full of s**t. Cutting wood with shop air is a re risk for one,
and wood has physical properties that make it very undesirable to cut. Cutting
with oxygen is a no no and nitrogen makes it cut slow, about 10 ipm at 2,600
watts. That is slower than it will cut 1/2 inch stainless steel. To suggest you can
cut 1/2 inch wood with 375 watts is a tale only an Amada salesman could dream
up.
You can put a etch in it about .01 inches deep at 350 ipm.
(From: Ray Abadie (rabadie@bellsouth.net).)
I guess we are all out to lunch in the model airplane eld where balsa and
plywood are cut everyday at speeds upwards of 100 ipm by CO2 lasers in the
100 watt range and shop air to assist the vacuum chucks in clearing the smoke.
Hum...
(From: Master Elf (helper@toontown.com).)
I thought we were talking about 1/2 inch wood, not .090 balsa or .090 plywood
there is a big dierence, and we were talking about assist gas, which follows
the beam through the cut to remove the vaporized material. It is pretty obvious
it's not a hazard to vacuum the smoke away duh...
Seriously though 1/2 inch wood is about the break point for lasers regardless of
power. You can cut it, but not eiciently.
(From: Steve Llewellyn (stevell@indlaser.com).)
Industrial lasers up to 2 kW are used eectively in cutting wood to 3 inches
thickness in the furniture business. Steel-rule dies are cut up to one inch thick
with 2 kW lasers in very common use. Shop air - clean and dry is used as an
assist gas in all of those examples. The edge produced is square, with a dark
grey to black color and the carbon is 0.005 to 0.010" thick and easily removed
with a sandpaper rub. Using nitrogen as an assist gas would clean the surface a
little but would be expensive.
Cutting Printed Circuit Boards

"Does anyone know if you can laser cut printed circuit boards, i.e. a
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copper clad glass/epoxy composite? I'm looking at thicknesses up to

12 mm. If so, what type of laser, what kurf sizes to expect, what power
levels, what is the process (i.e. ablate, melt and/or burn), and what
kind of cutting rates can I expect?"
CO2 lasers are often used to cut glass/epoxy boards. They don't do so well if
there's copper on them. You can probably get through a copper-clad board with
an excimer, but the process rate would generally be unacceptable.
When cutting berglass-epoxy, a CO2 laser melts the glass, which burns the
epoxy. There is always some char on the edge from the decomposed epoxy.
(From: Jef Falk (jlfalk@pacbell.net).)
I've seen a 2000 W laser cut copper sheet but it had to be sanded to remove the
reectivity from the surface. It was VERY slow (read: expensive), required a full
time eye on the beam, and puts a lot of heat into the material.
Plastic Cutting Lasers

"I would like to cut through thin (~2 mm) styrene plastic. It is thin
enough to cut with an exacto knife. (It is usually scored with an Xacto
knife and snapped out.)
I would spend around $600 for a laser that did the job. What type of
power would I need. I would like to be able to do a clean cut, but
scoring would probably be adequate. What would a 20 W laser do?
How much would they cost with power supply, and other neccessary
gear?"
The biggest problem is thermal conductivity of the material being cut. If the
total irradiance is too low, the heat will be conducted away and the beam
scattered before it can penetrate the material -- regardless of how small the
beam is. Theoretically, a 1 W laser cannot be focused any better than a 1000 W
laser of the same wavelength. In reality, it can -- but only moderately. This extra
focusing, however, will not make up for the lack of power -- the larger laser will
have a much higher power density In the end, total power is more important
(and cheaper to obtain) than extremely small spot size.
The other important thing to take into account is the transparency of the
material being cut. If this is clear or white plastic, for example, a visible laser
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(e.g., doubled YAG) will be highly ineicient. 100 W of 532 nm in a .1 mm beam

will almost certainly cut clear or white styrene, but not eiciently. A CO2 laser,
on the other hand, will eiciently cut almost anything but rock salt -- styrene
included. I would say that CO2 is your best bet, regardless of the color or lack
thereof of the plastic. My best estimate is that 10 W would cut at a manageable
rate, and 20W would cut as fast as your X-Y table can move. 1 W would not cut it
at all. You may be able to nd a used sealed-tube 10 to 20 W CO2 laser for
under $1000, but it may require some work and possibly regassing.
Try looking for used medical lasers -- they have articulated arms which allow
easy positioning of the beam.
Cutting Styrofoam with a CO2 Laser

The traditional method of cutting styrofoam sheets (up to a few inches thick or
more) is to use a hot wire on an electronically controlled XY table (like a at bed
plotter). One problem with this somewhat low-tech approach is that the path of
the hot wire must be continuous so certain shapes like rings or anything with
interior holes cannot be cut in a single operation with a wire that is attached
above and below the styrofoam sheet.
(From Leonard Migliore (lm@laserk.com).)
Some basic process questions rst:
How fast do you need to cut, and what is the foam density? How narrow a cut
width do you need, and how straight must the sides be?
The generation of a narrow beam reasonably well collimated beam can be
accomplished with a single lens of the appropriate focal length. In general, you
don't gain anything by using a pair of lenses. If, for example, you were using a
Synrad Model 48 laser (3.5 mm beam, 4 mR divergence) and focused the beam
with a 5" lens, you would have a focus spot 0.020" in diameter, and it would only
increase to 0.024" at the edges of a 2" thick part.
The cut width in styrofoam is much greater than the diameter of the laser beam.
The laser vaporizes the foam and the hot gases cut the material beyond the
beam. The cut tends to be V-shaped and widest at the top. The best results are
accomplished by going slowly to decrease the rate of gas evolution. The actual
cutting speeds you get vary greatly with the density of the foam and even more
with the allowable edge quality.
Are you looking at building your own system? There are many cutting systems
on the market with low-power CO2 lasers. If any of them meet your needs, it
will be a lot cheaper than building your own because you generally have to hire
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people like me to help you and I cost a lot.

By the way, you get terrible choking fumes doing this. You will need a rst-rate
exhaust system to keep from dying.
Cutting Polycarbonate with a CO2 Laser

Any time you laser-cut plastic (at least with a CO2 laser, which is the usual tool)
you get ugly fumes. Most plastics generate some benzene, which is generally
considered to be carcinogenic. A lot of them also form PAHs (I think that's
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) which are bad for you too. Some special
favorites of mine are Kevlar (cyanide!) and PVC (hydrochloric acid; gets you and
the machine too).
PMMA cuts by melting and vaporization, leaving relatively unaected material
at the cut edge. If you don't rile the cut with a lot of assist gas, the material on
the edge solidies smooth, giving you a "re-polished" edge. Polycarbonate
decomposes rather than melts, so it leaves a tarry brown residue on the edge.
You can push most of this out by using a lot of assist air, but then the edge gets
rough from turbulence. I've seen pretty good edges on polycarbonate 1 mm or
less thick. Any heavier and it's visibly darkened.
Cutting Thin Mylar Film with a CO2 Laser

CO2 is the best choice for Mylar (polyester) lm because it's absorbed well and
the watts are cheap. You can also cut Mylar with UV but you end up paying a lot
more per watt. The only reason this might make sense is that you can focus UV
a lot smaller, like if you need 10 micron slits or something.
Wattage depends on speed. You won't need much. 30 watts cuts it at about 1
meter/second. It's hard to nd CO2 lasers with less than 10 watts. I don't really
know the minimum power needed to cut 50 micron Mylar since most folks want
to cut fast.
You don't need an assist gas to cut material this thin, so you could use a
galvanometer scanner. You must, though, focus the beam to a rather small spot
like 100 microns or less. This tends to make your scanner expensive so it's
cheaper to use an XY stage and a focusing lens.
New 30 watt CO2 lasers are about $4000. Used and smaller lasers should be
less; folks on this group probably have some lying around.
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Aluminum Cutting Lasers

Aluminum is second only to graphite-Epoxy as a miserable material to cut with a
laser. We usually use 2 kW of CO2 power to go after 1/8" aluminum. You could
probably do it with a little less. Now, diodes (say 808 nm) couple a lot better to
aluminum than the 10.6 micron CO2 light, but the beam out of diodes is lousy
so you can't get a decent focal spot. I'd guess that 1 kW of diode light focused to
a 200 micron spot would do ne. There are, to my knowledge, no such animals
but there might be soon. Expect the laser to cost $80,000. It would cut wood
too.
Aluminum Welding Lasers

(From: Neil Main (enquiries@micrometric.co.uk).)
It depends on the application of course but laser welding aluminum often puts
less total heat into the part to achieve the same weld as TIG.
People are now welding 10 mm and thicker aluminum in a single pass with high
power CO2 lasers and achieving e-beam like key-hole welds, but less width to
depth ratio. Lack of distortion for sandwich structures can be "good enough to
justify the extra cost" - quote from someone doing it.
People also use pulsed YAG for welding aluminum electronic packages. Here the
requirement is to not get critical components hot - often 80degC. The electronic
bits are obvious but glass-to-metal feed-throughs (a metal rod passing through a
metal tube with the space between lled with glass) are also heat sensitive.
These feed-throughs are a few mm diameter and located on the wall a few mm
from the bottom of the lid weld - and they must not die!
Cutting Copper with a CO2 Laser

(From: Neil Main (neilmain@micrometric.co.uk).)
It is possible to cut thin copper with a CO2 laser.
You need enough power, we use a 2.7 kW Bystronic and always use full power.
The lens should be good quality and short(ish) focal length - we use a lens with
a 5 inch focal length. The assist gas should be oxygen and the pressure should
be high. Focus on the surface.
What you are trying to do is couple into the copper surface with as high a peak
power density as possible and cause melting quickly. Molten copper has a
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higher absorption of laser light than cold metal.

If you cut slower than maximum speed the risk of miss-cuts is reduced and back
reections minimized. This dramatically improves the life of nozzles, lenses,
bellows and anti-reection optics.
It is possible to cut 2 mm copper with only a small burr on the underside at
speeds of 1 meter/minute.
Your reference to anti-reection optics is important; it's not a good idea to cut
copper without them.
Steel Cutting Lasers

These are typically medium to large CO2 lasers. Laser diodes don't have enough
brightness for metal cutting. High-power Nd:YAG lasers have pretty lousy
beams too. Some typical power requirements:
3 mm steel: 200 watts minimum, 400 watts comfortable.
10 mm steel: 2 kW.
15 mm steel: 3 kW.
High-speed cutting is done CW, ne contouring is done pulsed.
Stone Cutting Lasers

"I'm interested in nding out about using a laser for cutting stone. I
know the basic physical principals but know little about laser cutting
technology. I gure natural stone is a combination of materials
including quartz, feldspar, and various metal salts. Can one type of
laser be used to cut these various materials all at once? How much
power and time is required? How narrow is the beam and what is its
divergence?"
It depends what you want to do. If you want to slice through a foot of granite,
lasers won't do it unless you work for the Air Force. Lasers do a pretty good job
of etching marble (like for tombstones).
You need a lot of laser power focused to a small spot to cut refractory materials
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such as stone. I am not aware of laser cutting of minerals more than 1/8" thick.
This takes a laser with 3 kW or so of power focused to a spot around 0.01" in
diameter. Travel speeds are low, around 10 IPM or so, varying greatly with the
material. A lot of stone is sensitive to thermal shock, so it cracks when you cut
it. My experience with rock is that the response to laser light varies greatly, but
I am unaware of any systematic studies of the eectiveness of lasers for cutting
a variety of types of stone.
The 10.6 micron light emitted by carbon dioxide lasers is absorbed by most
minerals. These lasers are available commercially with power outputs up to 60
kW, although units with more than 6 kW output are uncommon and expensive. I
believe that most stone cutting has been attempted with carbon dioxide lasers.
Your question about beam diameter and divergence implies that you want to cut
through a signicant thickness of rock, as in a mining operation. This is not
possible with commercial lasers since they won't remove enough rock to make it
worthwhile. For any laser, beam diameter and divergence are inversely related.
As an example, the beam from a certain large CO2 laser is 20 mm in diameter
at its waist and has a divergence of 3 mr. This can be converted with optics to
any combination yielding a product of 60 mm-mr. Dierent lasers will have
dierent diameter-divergence products.
I don't think you'll do well using a laser to cut stone, but Q-switched YAG
marking systems do a wonderful job of lightly engraving the surface and
discoloring it at the same time from oxidation. However eects vary from stone
to stone. We did a friends wedding present that way, a custom engraved slab of
marble.
(From: Anonymous (localnet1@yahoo.com).)
Contrary to what everyone else has to say, some stone would seem rather easy
to cut by laser unless you are looking for high cut rates. Using a laser engraver
(e.g., a Lumonics 50 W YAG), with a fairly large aperture (so probably putting
out 30 W or so), I have seen deep deep engravings done in marble and granite.
Not only were these engravings deep, but they were large, in less than a minute
I would venture to guess that at least a few cubic centimeters of granite was
removed by scanning the beam repeatedly over the same spot on the desired
engraving pattern. Although the mark took a fairly long time, if you think about
the volume of several cubic centimeters, and then were to have such a volume
again, but in a narrow, wide, deep mark (i.e., through a relatively small block of
material, no bigger than a few inches, to accommodate for the depth of focus of
the laser) you would cut through your small granite block in a rather short time.
Now if you are wanting to go through large amounts of material, you may again
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have a problem (i.e., mining operations), but if you are looking to make small
intricate parts out of something like granite and a saw will not suice, use a
Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. They seem to work fairly well.
Fabric Cutting Lasers

I usually use scissors.
If one wants to build a laser system for cutting fabric, the laser of choice is CO2.
The power level, and consequently the cost of the laser, is a function of the
material and the desired travel speed. The system cost is a function of work
envelope and travel speed.
Some curtains are glass ber. This is hard to cut and needs higher laser power
than organic bers.
If I was building a fabric cutter, I'd probably use a 100 watt laser (about
$20,000 new) and put it on a 4' x 8' gantry with speeds around 1,200 inches per
minute. System cost: about $300,000.
That's why I use scissors. :)
Focus Position and Cutting Speed

You get the maximum cutting speed when the greatest irradiance is delivered to
the bottom of the material. This usually occurs with the focus slightly below the
surface. If the focus is on the surface, the kerf on top is small but the beam
diverges as it gets deeper. As you drop the focus, the spot size at the bottom is
smaller, so the irradiance is higher. This eect has to be balanced by the greater
loss from the out-of-focus beam cutting at the top.
A lot of times, you're more concerned about edge straightness than maximum
speed. A lot of work has been done on die board cutting, and there the focus is
raised above the surface by several mm in order to get a straight kerf at the
expense of cutting speed.
I don't know of any formal work on focus position in wood and acrylic. Most
operators set it where it does what they want. John Powell's book "CO2 Laser
Cutting" has a lot of information on wood and plastic (along with a lot of
information on everything else you can cut).
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Large Cutting Laser - Not Quite a Basement Project!

"I am looking for a schematic for a laser that can cut anything."
(From: Dave (dave-a@li.net).)
Its a little more complicated then that. Tee CO2 laser is the workhorse of lasers.
Cuts most anything (though Copper and stainless steel are a bit funky since it
reects the light easily. You'd need anti-back rector mirrors) For a CO2 laser
you need CO2 (very high grade, 5.0) Nitrogen (5.0) and helium (5.0), -20 kV DC
@ 81 mA, a turbo or roots blower capible of circulating the gas at around 400
MPH (not sure of the metric eqiv), a vacum pump to bring the chamber down to
150 millibar and keeping it there, glass tubes, heat exchangers, etc, etc. It's a
bit more involved then you'd think.
You'd be bettor o buying on then building one. (you'll save money too)
(From: Junius Hunter (junius@bellsouth.net).)
Well, yes and no. Usefull wattage for cutting metal would typically be at a
minimum of approximately 400 watts of CO2 laser power. A simple slow-ow
design could be managed by someone with good mechanical skills. The cost
would be equal between the resonator structure, power supply and optics. You
would most likely want to have at least a 100 ma power supply. The laser gas
could be obtained easily enough in a pre-mix format from an industrial gas
supplier. The driving question is this; is this laser to be used in any sort of
continuous manner, such as production. In that case, you may be better o
buying a used laser at the desired rating. The cost of doing this in the basement
could easily run several thousand dollars. This is probably still cheaper than
buying a used laser, but then again, buying a used laser will normally get you a
working and ready to go unit.
Yup. (I goofed on the current. For got we are pumping 81ma per tube).
Premixed gas is the easy way out, sorta. It gets tough to control voltage when
you can't adjust the nitrogen and or helium. Then again some people may not
want to anyway. :)
(From: Junius Hunter (junius@bellsouth.net).)
One more thing, DC excited CO2 lasers at this power level (and lower for that
matter) are lethal. Not so much from the laser beam, but from the high voltage
needed for operation. The laser beam may burn, but the voltage can kill. Keep
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that in mind.
Yup. We had one customer, who thought he knew what he was doing, kill
himself. Another got a real nice 'zap' but lived to talk about it. We have the
customers sign a waiver if they want to go into the HV section. I still feel uneasy
and always will.
P.S. I still think it's easier and cheaper to buy used/surplus in the long run with
the mistakes, and extra crap you will need to keep the stu going.
Continue Dreaming
Well all of us had fantasies at one time or another! :-)
"I am conducting a laser experiment for my High School Science Fair.
I would need a fairly high powered laser which could cut things like
wood, cardboard, cloth, and metals. If anyone has such a laser and
has no use for it at the present time I would be willing to buy it at a
reasonable price or if you would like I could pay for shipping and use
it then send it back. We could gure out the details of that situation at
a later time. Serious oers only."
Serious oers only is right! You probably need a 30W or greater CO2 laser
(30W, when focused, will cut cardboard, wood, cloth, sheet metal, and plastic -see note). A used 30W CO2 laser, with a sealed tube and working PSU, will run
around $20,000. If you can do without a sealed tube (which means you eed to
do some serious maintenance and have the laser gas available) it may only cost
$7000. A non-operational unit may only be $800. To cut wood, ardboard, or
many types of cloth, you will need to use an "assist gas" this can be compressed
air for sheet metal (although oxygen would improve it a great deal), but it must
be something inert (or at least non-oxidizing -- CO2 works well) for cardboard,
wood, and cloth. The purpose of this is to blast away the burned material and to
prevent a re. For sheet metal, the oxygen will enhance the burning of the
metal and make it cut faster and more easily. Also, I hope you are aware of the
dangers of these devices. A 30W CO2 laser does not give you a second chance
in terms of eye damage -- any reection (from a mirror or anything else
somewhat reective) will instantly cause irreversible eye damage. You cannot
see the beam (IR), so you must be extremely careful. Always wear safety
goggles when the laser is operating. BTW, you will need a focusing lens for this
(it must be made from a special material -- the beam will not pass through glass
or plastic) which will be another $200+.
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Miscellaneous CO2 Laser Tidbits

Steve Discovers the Fun of CO2 Lasers
Also see the section: Description of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers
I recently have been buying used lasers from a medical surplus place and
reselling them, and a few owing gas CO2s show up from time to time. The
medical types all want sealed tube systems so the owing gas units are 500
pound useless dogs from the medical places' point of view. My main interests
are visible lasers and laser rebuilding. I also do light shows. However, after
playing with a medical CO2 and carving my name into glass bottles with it, I
have decided I must have one. :-) It's also nice to not need nearly opaque safety
glasses for a change!
CO2 has to be the easyest to use funnest laser I have worked on in a long time,
with just a few watts coming out of the surgical arm, we engraved wood, brick,
glass, then cranking up the power, cut a wine bottle in half. Signing your
signature in glass while wearing perfectly transparent safety goggles is not
something you can do with a fussy argon by a long shot. And with the argon
you'd be scared to death that the light would leak around your nose. The CO2 is
a laser that is serious about lasing. The whole thing ran o 115 VAC singlephase.
This was a sealed mirror tube, like a HeNe. Only you hooked it up to a bottle of
lasing gas neatly left 3/4 full by its previous owner and it had a water to air heat
exchanger. Its only fault was a blocked cooling line as it kept overtemping itself
o. BTW, CO2 does not lase well as it gets warm - it almost falls o linearly to
the temperature of the colling water. We could see water around the tube but it
was not owing fast enough so it would start at 21 watts and fall down to zero
in about 30 seconds and shut itself o. And unlike the fussy argon, all the
vacuum, gas, and water lines were cheap plastic. They weren't too worried
about leaks either. Non megadollar Swagelock connectors and joints on the gas
system - just o the shelf pneumatics.
CO2 Laser Communications

(From: Charles P. McGonegal (CPMCGONE@uop.com).)
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If I remember correctly, the atmosphere is quite transparent to the CO2 laser

line (give or take water scattering). Also, they are very easy to modulate when
RF driven instead of DC driven. The Melles Griot catalog lists a drive frequency
of 28 to 30 MHz, and built in modulation capability (just plug in your signal) to
50 kHz (don't quote me, this is from memory)
I think, that detection would be the biggest hurdle for use in communication
(outside the need for water cooling and gas sources - not all these things are
sealed units like HeNe lasers.
Novel Idea for CO2 Laser

Perhaps another use for old microwave ovens or a variation on "Hey Mon, I put
my sneakers in the microwave." :-)
(From: Scott Stephens (stephens@enteract.com).)
A problem with atmospheric - pressure lasers is creating a stable, diuse
excitation discharge. This may be created using a common, cheap microwave
oven(?). But what type of optical cavity?
I recently read an interesting article, "Experimental Investigation of Large
Volume PIA Plasmas at Atmospheric Pressure" by Brandenburg and Kline in the
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, vol 26, April, 1998.
It detailed the generation of a continuous plasmoid volume in a microwave
oven. The oven was modied by (1) installing a 1/4" bolt-antenna, (2) a spark
plug in the bottom center of the oven, and (3) mounting a 1/8" gas feed tube 1"
next to it, and (4) surrounding the modications with a 3"diameter. glass or
plexiglass kerosene lamp chimney tube.
The plasmoid was spawned in the oven by activating the spark plug, which
irradiated the microwave antenna with UV, decreasing the ionization threshold
and creating a spark at the antenna. When the gas ow volume is right (1.2
liters/minute) a large volume, persistent plasma vortex forms in the chimney
tube. If the ow rate is too slow, the plasmoid rises, if its too fast, the antenna
arcs. Having the gas ow oset from the chimney/plasmoid axis is necessary to
insure stability via vorticity of the plasmoid.
Instead of a 1.2 liter/minute airow, how about CO2? And how 'bout replacing
the glass chimney with an optical cavity? What I have in mind is a copper
sphere; Copper being a good reector of IR. The sphere would have sections
removed from the top and bottom for gas ow. The sphere around 2"diameter,
could be tuned by inserting a ceramic or glass slug at top and bottom. The
plasmoid vortex axis would be pinned in the sphere. a pinhole in the sphere side
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allows the beam to exit, out a mm diameter hole in the front of the oven.
Too bad glass is opaque to 10 micron radiation.
The sphere could be electro-formed (plated) from a graphite-painted balloon,
but how do you polish the inside?
An appropriate diameter (tuned) copper chimney pipe is another thought. This
would require a slit in the pipe to release the IR. It would be nice to create a
linear array of holes, spaced to form a focusing diraction grating.
Could this line of holes be generated using a computer & printer, reduced
photographically and etched lithographically in the copper? Would the plasma &
radiation quickly deteriorate a fragile foil structure? Any better idea's (buying a
ready-made laser notwithstanding)?
(From: Dr. Mark W. Lund (mlund@moxtek.com).)
My colleague Mike Lines and I tried to make a CO2 laser with a magnetron a
couple of years ago. After solving a lot of problems with microwaves and
waveguides and coupling we couldn't get any lasing because there was no way
to cool the plasma in our conguration. Mike changed the design to a gas
discharge and got it to lase. Then he got married, which ended our experiments
for now :(
The conguration that you propose will probably have the same problem. Your
idea has a new twist because we relied on reducing the pressure to get a
plasma discharge.
The World's Most Ineicient CO2 Laser

A commercial CO2 laser using a 4 foot tube with a 1" bore powered by a 15
kVAC, 60 mA neon sign transformer can generate 50 to 100 W. A determined
amateur can build a similar CO2 laser in their basement. See the section:
Description of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers. Compare that with the
following (followed by some additional comments):
(From: Robin Stoddart (stoddart@interlog.com).)
A while back, I decided to go to the Ontario Science Centre. They have a "high
power" CO2 laser there. It is about 40 to 50 feet long with a bore diameter of
about 6". The power supply is rated at 20 kVAC @ 15 A (yes, AMPS). The OC is
about 6" in diameter and has a hole about 1" in the centre for the beam. The
approximate output (are you ready?): 100 W!!!! HA!!! 100 measly watts!!!!
What really gets me is the ineiciency of it now: 300 kW input, 100 W output!
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That thing should have been able to cut through buildings and other large
objects. It was a gift from France in the 60's or 70's. HAHAHAHAHA!!! 100 W!!!
No joking! :)
Regrettably, the laser is now nowhere to be found. The Ontario Science Centre
had to get rid of it because of electrical problems. (The thing was almost always
NOT working. Very annoying, as that was one of the best demos at the place.)
Anyway, they say that they have acquired a krypton ion laser to show the
people, but I don't think that it will be quite as impressive. So, who's up for
building a twin of THAT beast? You would need a small power plant, a whole lot
of glass, and some 6" diameter resonant optics. Come on, you know you want
to! How 'bout it? See the chapter: Home-Built Carbon Dioxide Laser for
instructions. :)
(From: Sam.)
I can't imagine that any sort of modern commercial laser will be nearly as
impressive and educational as that beast. Everything is likely to be hidden
behind protective panels and safety interlocks. Sure, laser light is laser light but
the laser technology would be less visible. If they wanted a replacement to burn
things, maybe one of those older owing gas CO2 lasers could be substituted similar 100 W power output, smaller package, lower electrical bills. Not quite
the same but frees up valuable oor space. Any why a krypton ion laser? Who's
going to maintain that? They mmight as well display an external mirror
helium-neon laser (or HeNe laser of any kind!). At least you can leave the covers
o and see the discharge tube and mirrors!
Having seen the same unit, I'd like to interject that it probably did much more
when it was built as I saw it blow through a brick when I was a kid. Museums
don't usually have technicians that specialize in lasers enough to know how to
spot a bad optic. Those guys are usually sharp generalists who can maintain
anything - a sort of jack of all trades but master of none. Or, the operator that
was trained on it, retired or moved to hopefully better things. Nor would it
surprise me if it were merely misaligned. 100 watts is still an impressive setup that was probably a kW or more once. Is it on their webpage?
CO2 Laser for Tree Pruning?

This question was actually asked on a laser related discussion group by
someone who shall remain nameless and probably had had too high a dose of
Sci-Fi! He gured it would be easier to aim a laser at a high branch than
climbing a ladder and would be a good excuse to build a laser! After all, CO2
lasers may be used for production wood cutting. (See the section: Large Wood
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Cutting Lasers.)
Tree pruning is probably not a good application for a CO2 laser. Think of trying
to cut branches with a propane torch. It is easy to start res, limbs would come
crashing down uncontrollably, the speed of anything but a 10,000 W, $250,000
industrial laser would be disappointing compared to a saw, aiming and focusing
the beam - and maintaining it would be quite a challenge, and CO2 lasers aren't
exactly portable. In addition, pilots of low ying aircraft would not generally
appreciate having holes punched in their wings or elsewhere by accident (no
beam stop after all!):
Insurance Adjuster: "So, please explain once again what exactly
happened to your plane".
Pilot: "I was ying over a residential area. There appeared to be a really
weird looking futuristic contraption on the ground surrounded by a bunch
of burning trees. Next thing I knew, I could see through spots on the oor, I
lost rudder control, the oil pressure light came on, and of more immediate
concern, the air conditioning cut out!"
Insurance Adjuster: "Oh, that was probably Ralphie doing his annual tree
trimming. He must have built himself a bigger laser this year. It's really
nothing personal"
Besides, even a bushel of chain saws and ladders is going to be a lot less
expensive than ANY cutting laser! :)
Keep it low tech!
And, no, lasers aren't appropriate for mowing grass either despite the fact that
there is such a thing as laser hair removal and hair does share some similarity
to grass! :)
CO2 Laser for Paint Removal

Yeah, hmmm, grrr. ;) I sort of think laser paint removal runs in the same
category as laser tree trimming - more trouble than it is worth. Even if a laser
could do this, it would need to be HUGE and probably require much more
power than a sander or heat gun, not to mention cost and portability.
A 1,500 W electric paint stripper or 1,200 W sander uses 1200 W and puts out
nearly that much in heat or work. A CO2 laser to produce the same beam power
would require 5 kW or greater input! The laser's eectiveness would also be
dependent on the color, texture, age, and type of the paint and thus one type of
laser probably wouldn't be useful for all situations. Other types of lasers might
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be even less eicient. And, of course, there would always be the issues of safety
and risk of property damage: "Oops, left it in one spot too long, sorry about that
string of holes clear through to the far wall". :)
If You Have the Space and Power

Here's a little item that might make you the envy of the neighborhood:
Plasmatronics, Inc. 10 Kilowatt CO2 Gas Laser System. Built in 1984
for General Dynamics for research in the Star Wars program. Original
cost was $1,500,000.00 paid for by you, the taxpayer!
Power output: 10 kW maximum, 7.5 kW continuous.
Beam characteristics: 3.5" diameter circular multi-mode beam.
Power supply: 25,000 VDC, 3 A, Potronics model# 825-3A
Power requirements: 440 VAC, three-phase, 125 kVA.
Gas/vacuum system: WGK 8000 manufactured by Pfeier-Balsers
600 M3H, powered by 1720 rpm 60 HP electric motor.
Laser comes complete with control cabinet and power regulator
system. The entire system was gone through and updated just before
it was taken out of commission.
Price: $15,000.00.
Check out some pictures of this beauty at: Laser Surplus Sales while it lasts!
High Power Compact CO2 Laser?

The authors of the information at the following Web site: Super Laser Page
claim to have invented a CO2 laser that (according to them) will be signicantly
smaller and lighter than conventional CO2 lasers of similar output power. They
haven't completed a prototype as yet (December, 1999) but the site links to a
couple of patents. Of course, we all know what that means. :)
Like the respondent below, I haven't studied the Web site or the referenced
patents in detail but from what I have seen, there is more left out than included.
And, it is in those details where viability will be determined. It's real easy to
propose bucket loads of new and improved laser designs. They're a dime a
dozen. :) Making such systems work, and then taking them successfully to
market, is real the challenge!
(From: Anonymous (localnet1@yahoo.com).)
I must admit that I did not have time to thoroughly look into your plans, but
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your approximations for weight and size are in error, by orders of magnitude.
First you overlook the fact that lasers with many multiple bounces per cavity
round trip have much lower gain than 'single shot' resonators. This is due to the
fact that a mirrors eiciency is not perfect, and many cumulative bounds leads
to a lower cavity nesse. Therefore, your laser would have lower eiciencies
than normal. Let's say that average CO2 eiciency is 15%. That would mean
that you would have to dissipate tens of thousands of watts in your 3,500 W
laser head. This would be a feat, to say the least to accomplish, and certainly
would not be done in a 2 kilogram apparatus. Aects of thermal gradients are
also ignored in your proposal. Although it is good to an extent to quickly cool
the laser gas, when you do this too fast, it leads to thermal lensing and other
optical problems. It is for this reason that some YAG lasers, and other high
power systems, are run a bit on the hot side at elevated temperatures higher
than what the cooling system is capable of handling. Finally, there would be a
very complex optical mechanical system needed to support this assembly, again,
mainly due to the very long eective bore length, and the high number of
bounces. I think you have some interesting ideas, but get someone working with
you that knows a lot more about CO2 laser design!
Frequency Multiplication of CO2 Laser?

With the popularity of frequency multiplication (2X, 3X, 4X) of YAG and other
solid state lasers, how about doing this for a CO2 laser? Well, the rst problem
is that few materials are known that would be suitable. And, the eiciency is
probably terrible. And, you would need 16X or so to have a visible wavelength.
By the time you did all that, your 100 W CO2 laser might produce about as
much 662 nm red light as a $5 laser pointers. :)
(From: Kenneth Ferree (lasersnow1@aol.com).)
You can actually buy a frequency doubling crystal for 10.6 um. They are made in
Russia: AgGaSe2, 5x5x25 mm, (better be sitting down) $5,550 (USD) each. Type
1, theta = 52 deg, phi = 45 deg, SHG of 10.6 um AR/AR coatings at 10.6/5.3 um.
Laughing Gas (N2O) Laser

(From: David Crocker.) When added to a normal CO2 laser mix, even 0.1
percent of N20 would signicantly reduce the gain and aect the electrical
characteristics of the discharge as noted in the paper:
P. Bletzinger, D. A. Laborde, W. F. Bailey, W. H. Long, Jr., A. Garscadden,
and P. D. Tannen, "Inuence of contaminants on the CO2 electric-discharge
laser", IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, vol. QE-11, July 1975, pt. 1,
pp. 317-323.
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But CW CO2 lasers can also be made to work on N2O (laughing gas) - replace
the CO2 by N2O. I don't have a record of the exact wavelength(s), but it is
somewhere in the 9 to 11 um region because we were able to use the same
diraction grating and other optics.
Small Commercial Sealed CO2 Lasers

Coherent Xanar XA-20 Medical CO2 Laser
This system is/was used in a number of medical/surgical applications. Although
the systems presently have the Coherent name, the actual laser is built by
Laakman/Synrad. See Industrial Laser Solutions - Synrad Celebrates 20 Years
for some more info.
The XA-20 uses an air-cooled RF-excited sealed CO2 laser head and mating RF
power supply which runs on 28 VDC at about 15 A max. Its rated output power
is 20 W, though a new system will do somewhat more. The laser can be
modulated (on/o) at up to a rate of to at least 10 kHz so that variable power
control can be implemented via Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). If recycled as a
marking or cutting laser, this permits precise control of laser output on the y.
The laser head enclosure is about 36.5 inches in length with the rectangular all
metal sealed RF-excited tube being about 29 inches long. The remaining space
is for a cooling fan at the HR-end and the delivery and aiming system at the
output-end. There appear to be three-screw adjustable mirror mounts on the
tube. The RF enters via a pair of coax cables. The only other connection to the
head required for running the laser is 115 VAC for the fan. And there is a
thermal protector that can be included in an interlock circuit to shut down the
system if the baseplate gets too hot.
I was given a Xanar XA-20 head (minus the delivery and aiming system) and RF
power supply, and picked up a 28 VDC power supply on eBay. The only thing
required to run the laser beyond that is a normally open switch to turn it on via
the modulation input on the RF power supply. After some quick testing using a
pushbutton switch, I constructed a little control box providing for adjustable
power via PWM of about 1 percent to 99 percent via a knob (along with a full on
override). I don't know what variable power capability was provided in the
original system. It runs at about 6.5 kHz since these types of lasers are
supposedly most eicient between 5 and 10 kHz. Something about gas
circulation/cooling. And, running at 95 percent may actually produce a slightly
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higher power output than 100 percent but I have not conrmed this with
measurements as I still have to set up a power meter that won't be melted by
this laser. :)
The beam close to the laser head aperture is between 1 and 2 mm in diameter.
When set at 5 W, a red construction brick begins to glow. At 20 W, the spot
becomes white hot incandescent and almost too bright to watch in a fraction of
a second. Little black crators are left behind along with a ne black halo 3 or 4
mm in diameter surrounding eash spot. I don't know if the halo is simply some
artifact of the thermal event or in the actual beam prole.
With a wavelength of 10.6 um, the divergence is rather high but suitable optics
can be added to control this. The components of the original hand-piece would
perhaps be of use in this regard. I was given a short focal length germanium
lens to try but need to arrange for a stable mount. At these power levels, the
consequences of an optic accidentally shifting while the beam is on could be,
shall we say, unfortunate. So, one doesn't use duct tape and bailing wire. ;-)
If anyone has more information on the XA-20 like detailed specications and/or
an operation and service manual, please contact me via the
Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Synrad 48-1 and 48-2 RF Excited CO2 Lasers

These use tubes that appear similar to the one in the Xanar, above. But the tube
itself is of all aluminum construction except for viton seals for the mirror
mounts and gas-ll/RF ports. The tube box structure and electrodes are
extruded while the end-plates are machined and welded in place. The mirror
mounts are simple circular disks with three screws bearing on the periphery for
adjustment, which are sealed with a dab of Epoxy after alignment. While not
being hard-sealed, the tubes have a typical shelf life in excess of 4 years, and 10
years or more with little degradation is not unheard of. The 48-1 requires one
RF driver while the 48-2 requires two RF drivers and is essentially a pair of 48-1
cavities in series. Also unlike the Xanar which has an RF power supply remote
from the laser head, the RF driver(s) of Synrad 48 laser are normally closecoupled to the tube using the internal capacitance of the electrodes in
conjunction with an internal tuning inductor as part of its resonant tank circuit,
resulting in a very compact lightweight and eicient system.
Here is a summary of the specicatiohns:
Specification
48-1
48-2
------------------------------------------------------------------Nominal Power Output
12 W
27 W
Minimum Power Output
9.5 W
23 W
Guaranteed Power Output
7.5 W
20 W
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Wavelength
10.5 to 10.7 um
HR Mirror
Si, 3 meter RoC
OC Mirror
ZnSe, Planar
OC Reflectance
95%
92%
Beam Diameter
3 mm
Beam Divergence
5 mR
Transverse Mode
TEM00, rect. at exit, circ. in far field
Polarization
Linear, vertical, 50:1 minimum
RF Frequency
45 to 46 MHz
RF Power
120 W
120 W x 2
RF Drive Circuit
Single transistor oscillator
Power Control
Pulse width modulation 0 to 100 percent
Modulation Frequency
0 to 10 kHz
Optimal PWM
5 to 10 kHz at 95% for maximum power
Cooling
Forced air or water
Tube Power Diss. Max
110 W
220 W
DC Input
28 VDC at 11 A
28 VDC at 22 A
Total Power Diss. Max
310 W
620 W
(RF driver and tube)
Tube Dimensions
2"x2"17"
2"x2"31"
Laser Dimensions WxHxL
2.8"x3.89"17"
2.8"x3.89"31"
(Includes RF driver)
(Add 0.25" for top cooling fins)
Laser Weight
9 Pounds
18 Pounds
Two of the relevant patents are:

U.S. Patent #4,805,182: RF-Excited, All-Metal Gas Laser.
U.S. Patent #4,837,772: Electrically Self-Oscillating, RF-Excited
Gas. Laser.
Applications include small to medium size laser engraving and marking systems
such as those from Epilog Laser.
Hughes 3800H Waveguide CO2 Laser

The 3800H is a very small and very simple DC-excited self-contained air-cooled
waveguide CO2 laser dating from 1984. There were other Hughes waveguide
CO2 lasers based on the same technology with the 3800H probably being the
lowest power. The model 3802H had two tubes like the one in the 3800H joined
end-to-end and 4 HV power supplies. Versions with a "-T" (e.g., 3802H-T) had
circuitry in the laser head to regulate the tube temperature by varying fan
speed. Adjusting the temperature would allow some control of cavity length to
select any one of the lasing transitions around 10.6 um. (Or at least, that's what
the manual says!) Those versions without this option had a simple fan on/o
switch. (Water cooling could also be used since there were plumbing
connections to the baseplate.)
The 3800H and 3802H are called "waveguide" lasers NOT because they use RF
but because the bore is quite narrow (less than 1 mm) and designed to act as a
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waveguide for the 10.6 um lasing wavelength. The mirrors are probably planar.
See the section: Waveguide CO2 Lasers.
Photos of both of these lasers, as well as one of their predecessors, can be
found in the Laser Equipment Gallery (Version 2.24 or higher) under "Hughes
CO2 Lasers".
The only major components inside the toaster oven-size enclosure of the 3800H
are the laser tube on top and a pair of high voltage power supplies below deck
that look similar to large HeNe laser power supply bricks, except that these
produce 6.6 kV at 2 to 4 mA (adjustable). There is a PieZo Transducer (PZT) at
the HR-end of the tube for cavity length tuning, but using it requires a separate
"dither" controller, the 3870H. In "Automatic" mode, it applies a low frequency
signal to slightly change cavity length and locks on to a peak of the gain curve
based on current feedback from the dischage (which correlates with maximum
output power). There are also "Manual", "Ramp", and "External" modes.
The tube is all metal-ceramic (BeO!) with a large "gas can" in the center and the
high voltage applied to the ends. The maximum output power listed on the
safety sticker is only 5 W for the 3800H. But its tube is only about 10 inches in
total length. I would have assumed it to have dual anodes with a center cathode,
but measurements of the voltages when turned on seem to be the exact
opposite. Normally, the cathode should be away from the mirrors to allow for
better heat dissipation (which is mostly at the cathode) and to prevent
sputtering damage to the mirrors. However, this sample of the 3800H laser
seems to have it backwards. But, the power supplies are simply marked "6.6 kV
at 2-4 mA" with no polarity indication and the color code (red) would normally
imply positive output. At rst I thought that perhaps the power supplies
somehow failed in s peculiar way resulting in reverse polarity (as impossible as
this could be). However, there is a current meter in the return circuit and that
reads the correct direction. So, it's still a mystery. Here is the HV circuit:
Black +-------+ Red
-12 kv (open circuit)
+--------| PSU 2 |------------------------------------+
|
+-------+
|
|
|
| Black +-------+ Red
-12 kv (open circuit)
|
+--------| PSU 1 |------------+
|
_|_
+-------+
|
+---+
|
////
___|___
|
|
___|___
|
| ------|
|------ |
|
PZT ---||
========
========
| ====> Out
|____|__------|
|------__|____|
|
|
+-+-+
|
- +-+-+
| M | 10 mA full scale
66 of 75
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+ +-+-+
_|_
////
Measurements were made with a Simpson 260 with HV range extending

resistor (read: poor excuse for HV probe) and meter polarity was conrmed
with a low voltage DC power supply. Although not entirely conclusive, there
isn't any evidence that either the power supplies have been replaced or that the
meter had been rewired.
The unit I have is apparently quite dead. Although the tube draws current, it is
erratic - more of a stuttering than a continuous ow - and there is no detectable
output. I don't want to power it for any length of time until the polarities have
been conrmed since I'd expect incorrect polarity to totally ruin the mirrors in a
very short time.
If anyone has more information on this or similar Hughes CO2 lasers, please
contact me via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
VINCA Mini TEA CO2 Laser

See Patrick's VINCA Mini TEA CO2 Laser for a series of photographs and some
description. (Also linked from Patrick's Homepage).
Here is some basic info:
At the Lasers & Laser Applications Division within the Department of Physical
Chemistry of the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, which has long time
experience in R&D of the molecular gas lasers and their components, a mini
TEA CO2 laser head has been developed with the following characteristics:
Lasing material: Gas mixture CO2/N2/He (typical).
Operating pressure: 1 atm.
Wavelengthm: 10.6 um.
Active discharge volume: 1 cm x 1 cm x 16 cm (16 cm3).
Output energy per pulse: 0.25 J/0.20 J typical (multimode operation).
Specic output energy: 16 J/l (typical, 1 Hz rate)
Pulse width: about 100 ns (initial spike).
Pulse power: About 1 MW.
Repetition rate: 0.5 to 2 Hz (typically 1 Hz).
Beam dimensions: 1 cm x 1 cm (multimode).
HR mirror: Gold coated, planar reector about 85% visible.
Germanium (or ZnSe) output coupler: 5 m radius of curvature.
Resonator length: 21 cm.
External dimensions of the mini head: Width: 9 cm, height: 9 cm,
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length: 22.5 cm.

Weight: 2.5 kg.
The mini TEA CO2 laser head operates in a slow axial ow regime. The typical
gas mixture is CO2/N2/He. Typical consumption of the gas mixture is less than
0.4 l/min. The laser can also operate in the fundamental mode (TEM00) by
inserting an aperture (about 6 mm in diameter) into the resonator. Under these
conditions the output energy is 1/3 of that obtained in multimode operation.
Diameter of the laser beam in TEM00 mode is about 6 mm and beam
divergence is of the order of several mR. Under special conditions with a
nonconventional CO2/N2/He/H2 gas mixture the specic laser output energy is
approximately 30 J/l. In this case the extracted laser output energy is 440 mJ
(from only 16 cm3 of lasing volume).
Laser Photonics CO2 Laser Tube

This is a small metal-ceramic tube with dual anodes and a center cathode. Other
than the following photos, I do not have much more information on it except
that the price was around $4,000!
Laser Photonics CO2 Laser Tube - Overall View shows the ceramic bore
with the mirror mounts at each end. The small white stubs are the caps for
the anode connections. The large metal structure is the gas reservoir. The
ll port at the left has a screw inside, so this and the mirrors are probably
not hard-sealed.
Laser Photonics CO2 Laser Tube - Closeup of HR
Laser Photonics CO2 Laser Tube - Closeup of OC
A similar tube is used in the Laser Photonics model:CT-55-A000, circa 1989. It's
good for at least 3 W. Here are a couple photos (courtesy of Matthew Dickson).
Laser Photonice Model CT-55-A000 Laser Head.
Laser Photonice Model CT-55-A000 Tube in Heatsink.
If anyone has more information on this or similar Laser Photonics CO2 lasers,
please contact me via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Descriptions of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2

68 of 75
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Lasers
Commercial Versions of the Type of CO2 Laser You Could
Build
These are the type of CO2 lasers used for various medical/surgical applications
(we won't get into the gory details!). Photos of typical units can be found in the
Laser Equipment Gallery. The rst one described below is a self contained unit
only requiring 115 VAC power on a roll-around base (like all that other medical
equipment you know and love). The plasma tube along with its HeNe pointing
laser was mount on the side vertically with the articulated beam feed head
exiting from the top. These are both basically the commercial versions of the
sort of CO2 laser you would build at home.
Also see the section: Steve Discovers the Fun of CO2 Lasers.
Here are various assorted notes and comments on various models. (All of these
so far are from: Steve Roberts.)
Coherent 541
Gas ow path: Premix tank at 2,200 psi, normal tank regulator set to 50 psi,
then a solenoid valve, then a ne adjust regulator at 0 to 10 psi, a sensitive
pressure gauge, a check valve followed by a needle valve, then a Tee with a
solenoid valve to atmosphere followed by the tube. The ne adjust regulator
was a critical part of setting up the system for repeatable adjustements. The
vacuum pump and a dirt trap were on the other end of the tube. When the laser
is shut o, the gas solenoid valve closes shutting o gas to the tube. The other
solenoid valve opens venting the tube to atmosphere, thus preventing the pump
oil from backowing into the system. A 0 to 40 Torr mechanical gauge was on
the high (feed) side of the tube.
From the user manual for the 541, the gas mix should be: 4.5% CO2, 13.5% N2,
and the balance (82%) He. From the pressure chart on the side of the unit: 0 to
15 watts, set needle valve for 20 Torr; for 16 to 40 watts, set it for 25 Torr.
The tube was made of Pyrex with a half inch bore and cooling jacket. The jacket
was put on using a glass lathe. (Something no well equipped shop should be
without - it looks something like a machine lathe but with its headstock and
tailstock designed to hold glass pieces up to perhaps a foot in diameter while
they are rotating with multiple gas torch heads on movable swivels along the
sides.) The distance between the electrodes was 24" with 31" between the
mirrors. Two salt windows of some sort were carefully epoxied to the tube with
TorrSeal. A plastic piece with O-rings held the tube into the mirror mounts and
69 of 75
21/07/15 13:44
sealed the salt windows from the atmosphere. The HR (High Reector) mirror
was silicon, the OC (Output Coupler) was ZeSe, I could not measure the
radiuses without loosing alignment, something I was unwilling to do on a
customer's laser.
The PSU was a phase controller of some sort in front of the commercial neon
sign transformer they used to power the unit. A 15 KC, 30 mA transformer did
24 watts maxed out on the power meter. They didn't rectify the AC.
Compared to the argon lasers I usually work on, the CO2 requires much looser
tolerances. All the vacuum hoses were low cost plastic and not much attention
was placed on the hose ttings. With the exception of the Swagelock needle
valves, all the ttings were hardware store stock - something I would never
dream of doing on an HeNe or ion laser. In fact, leaks seemed to be tolerated
well.
The power measurement on these units is usually nothing more then a Peltier
cooler element in reverse hooked to a water cooled heat sink with an adsorber
on on one side. Anybody know what coating they use on the adsorber? When I
tried my carbon dust visible adsorber on the CO2 it burned the PM sensor. The
Peltier based PMs can be calibrated by winding a Nichrome loop around the
sensor disk, it's 10% accuracy at best, but thats not bad for a home made
system. You are measuring the heat ow passing through the peltier, and are
not too concerned with the heat sink temperature on its back side.
Cooling was REALLY critical. The customer's laser had a blocked cooling loop.
It would start but then the controller would shut it down. It measured water
temp using a thermister in the return line from the cooling jacket. As you
pinched the cooling tubing, you can watch the power shoot down as the gas
heated up. The heat exchangers were small 3 layer radiators about 1 foot
square with a 6" muin fan behind them and the single coolant pump was rated
for 22 liters a minute. Kinda like the postal truck heater cores in surplus
catalogs.
Sharplan 733
. Electrodes are nickel tubing, 0.6" diameter, .8" long, with beam passing
through them (collinear with bore). Electrodes have 1.6" dia 1.8" long section of
cooling jacket around them. The remainer of cooling jacket is 0.870" diameter.
Bore (best eyeball measurement) is 0.3" diameter with a 3 mm long gap
between the electrodes and the start of the bore. The electrodes are surrounded
by the water jacket wall with a 0.1 millimeter gap between them the two.
The distance from inside edge of electrode to inside edge of other electrode is
22 inches.
70 of 75
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A 1.25" diameter 2" long section at each end of the tube has a plastic tting
glued to it with TorrSeal and an O-ring on the face of the butts up against
plastic in the mirror mounts that hold the mirror. A clamp slides over the tube
and screws into the mount pressing the face of the tting into the plastic of the
mirror mount for a gas tight seal using the oring.
In an unusual twist, the plastic of the mounts has a metal cooling jacket around
it, to chill the plastic and the optics.
One third of the way down the tube from the anode-end is a metal clamp around
the tube about two inches long with a 110 F Klixon switch on it - the overtemp
shutdown sensor. The back side of the clamp is made of PVC to accommodate
expansion.
Gas ow in and out of the tube is right at the outside edge of each electrode, so
the gas is owing through the electrodes, but yet is 2.5" from the optics at each
end. Water and gas ow is via 1/4" OD glass tubes sealed to the cooling jacket
and bore. these are bent back at right angles to make the tube assembly more
compact.
1 inch diameter optics were used, a Si mirror at the HR, and a ZnSe OC. One
the unit I have, someone misconnected the water cooling hose and the ZnSe
optic dissolved. :(
The power supply is a 5.3 kV, 150 mA heavy duty custom wound transformer
followed by a full wave bridge and two .1 uF, 10 kV lter caps. At the
cathode-end, an Eimac/Varian 3-400Z vacuum tube was used as the current
regulator. The card that drove the tube was fried beyond belief or I'd trace the
schematic and post it. I suspect this one did much more then 24 watts. :-)
Sharplan 1060
The main transformer is 5.3 kV at 220 mA. There are three wires going to the
CO2 laser tube, one to the middle one on each end. There are a pair of Eimac
8163/3-400Zs power triode tubes in the high voltage power supply. The two
3-400Zs are ran as grounded grid current sources, two HV transistors for each
tube drive the cathodes with something like -12 V. Watch out for the nasty
voltage doubler capacitors on the HV tranny! Hams love to buy those 3-400Zs
and their sockets if you ever scrap it. The tubes actually act as a constant
current circuit and do the overdrive square wave pulses for the "bone digging
mode". BTW, stay out of pulse mode if you like to keep the thing running.
If this is the owing gas generation, Power is varied by the gas pressure knob
(labeled power) with tube current held constant.
71 of 75
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Usually where they die is the Teon block under the tube that holds the vacuum
hoses and gas feed, it cracks from stress and the tube doesn't quite get enough
vacuum to start. It should have about 13.8 KV in the HV supply and half that
across each part of the tube when no plasma lit.
If it's a owing gas laser, change the oil on the vacuum pump immediately and
run ushing oil followed by a good grade of vacuum pump oil. They never
bother to change that oil and its hard on the pump!
HV+
o
|
|=======^=======| Laser Tube
/
\
anode [+]
[+] Anode
HVgnd [---]
3-400Zs
[---] HV Gnd
-12 V [=]
[=] -12 V Constant current control
Merrimack 850
Everybody wants more then 50 watts. Well, here it is. And, compact and light
weight too.
I got a call from the gent whom I buy my used lasers from today, a rather
cryptic "Just get up here and bring your tools, Drop whatever your doing, and
bring a extra set of safety goggles". He's a man of few words, and that speaks
volumes. So I drove the hour and a half. It was worth it. I nally got in
something that doesn't weigh 160 pounds for the head alone and is much less
then 6 feet long. And - does much more then 50 watts out of a 37 inch tube. It
was however expensive. Much more expensive then the scrap Sharplans I've
been getting.
What was almost better then getting the unit was the fact that it came with
complete electrical blueprints, the operators manual, and the full engineering
and repair data in a 3 ring binder with multiple copies of the 100 or so foldout
pages. :-) The critical control circuits are quite simple: opamps and SCRs. It
uses a ltered 60 Hz line waveform and comparators to drive 4 SCRs to phase
control the transformer primaries for a constant tube current in one leg of the
tube with the others track the monitored one.
What he wanted me to do is re it up for him, he's never seen a working laser,
but the mix tank was empty. :-( I did try to get the tank lled while I was there
but the local place wanted $167 dollars for the ll and $2.50 a day for tank
rental. As the company that lled this tank was 125 miles away and is not a
national brand, the local place would not take the tank in trade or swap it. $170
72 of 75
21/07/15 13:44
for an hour of lasing wasn't worth it. Besides, if he knew it works, it would have
cost more, if he would have sold it at all. The customer just wanted the
electronics and controls. Eventually I'll re up one for him.
Alas, although the head and arm was available, the only thing I was allowed to
take from the supply was the vacuum pump and the needle valve assembly, the
later fortunately being in a remote box for controls that was not sold. I got a
empty CO2 tank for my troubles, and a full nitrogen tank. The unit only has 299
hours on it being the prototype for a new medical protocol and thus was not
allowed to be used for anything other then the microsurgery study it was
designed for. But I also got the pressure versus power data for several tube
lengths.
The design is well, bizarre.
It's a Merrimack 850.
There are 3 anodes, 2 cathodes and gas ows from both cathodes and out the
center anode. Two transformers power an anode at the end of the tube, and
sharing a anode in the middle. The power is rectied and ltered DC, one
bridge and lter cap for each transformer. The cathodes are centered between
the anodes. Each anode is limited to 25 mA. 4 LEDs in series with one of the the
ballast resistors to indicate current via a ber optic link to a light meter. The
supply is CONSTANT current, they vary the gas pressure from 5 torr (starting)
to 85 torr, at 65 watts. The power control knob is literally a geared down needle
valve with limit stops.
A array of solenoid valves purges the tube, backlls it with mix before starting,
and bypasses the power control valve during starting. It also repressurizes the
tube when shutting down and protects it from overpressure. A complex circuit
monitors tube pressure and remaining gas, warning when the tank is "down to
200 psi and approximately 30 minutes of lasing at full power remains" and it
shuts down at 10 psi above what the regulator is set, about 12 psi. There is a
pretty complex array of ballast resistors to equalize the currents. The
transformers are 18 kV, drop across the tube is 5 kV starting and 8.8 kV at max
current. The total tube current is 85 mA max.
Tube details:
Mirrors on anges with soft indium metal gaskets. No bellows are required as
they compress the indium wire to change the mirror position. There are no
external mirror mounts - it's supported by two thin plastic blocks, so more like
an internal mirror HeNe laser tube. Made in 1984. It has a ceramic bore,
internal diameter unknown at this time, surrounded by a large diameter cooling
jacket. The outer diameter of the bore looks like 3/16". The mirrors are cooled
73 of 75
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before the water jacket, a pair of thermisters maintains constant temperature

by turning on and o the pump.
The bore is glassed into the jacket with a glass to ceramic seal. There are
several bore sections, probably aligned on a tensioned tungsten wire while the
glass was sucked down around the bore on a glass lathe using a weak vacuum
and a swivel tting. there is a diverging lens at the output end, followed by a
collimating lens before it goes into the arm, this indicates a high divergence. Its
probably a waveguide laser, using the bore walls as bounce paths to extract
every possible bit of power, but till I can run a gas that won't lase down it and
see what the spot looks like, I wont be able to measure the diameter
(WARNING: Do this wearing laser safety goggles, many gases may lase besides
CO2 mix!)
The 37" long tube produces 65 watts when powered by two 20 mA discharges.
It will run quite well o two standard 15 kV, 60 mA neon transformers. Power is
varied by adjusting the gas ows with a needle valve assembly. The head
Includes a power meter sensor. It's a waveguide tube with mirrors sealed on
with replaceable indium seals and looks sort of like a 37" long water cooled
HeNe laser tube weighing in at only about 2 pounds. (However, it isn't sealed
and does need a tank of CO2 laser mix gas and a vacuum pump to run - see
below). Laser head is a light weight 4 foot 6 inch long by 6 x 5 inch grey metal
case.
The recommended CO2 laser mix is (listed on side of tank): 8.704% Co2,
15.21% Nitrogen, balance helium. Spec in book is 9:15:balance.
From the book:
Tube length (in)
Max Pressure
Start pressure
Pwr-Max
Pwr-Out
-------------------------------------------------------------------------37
98-104 Torr
17 Torr
65 Watts
58 Watts
44
105-110
13
88
68
24
81-87
10
47
38
16
79-85
7
31.5
26
16-low pwr
80
7
27
24
Pwr-Out is what is delivered to the articulated arm.

The OC is ZnSe (transmission not specied, no other details available.)
HR is silver coated germanium with a overcoat on the silver to protect it.
Doesn't say the radius, but species it as 99.4 % reective.
Arm Optics Cleaning (from the Merrimack manual):
Copper Mirror:
74 of 75
21/07/15 13:44
"Cover the reecting surface with a mild household detergent (JOY)

rub the mirror surface with a clean nger, rinse with distilled water,
dry with ltered blown air. Check the surface for spots, discoloration
of the mirror will not necessarily impair its reectance."
Finger, NOTTTT!!! more like sterile chemwipe!
"Silicon mirror has soft coating on surface - DO NOT use water. Cover
the reecting surface with absolute (pure) alcohol and drag a lens
tissue moistened with alcohol over the surface. Let the mirror dry by
evaporation."
The Coherent Laser Group has a better explanation of drop-and-drag cleaning.
Search for "optics cleaning".

Forward to Helium-Cadmium Lasers.
Sam's Laser FAQ, Copyright 1994-2014, Samuel M. Goldwasser, All
Rights Reserved.
I may be contacted via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
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21/07/15 13:44

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Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ, Copyright 1994-2014, Samuel M. Goldwasser, All

Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Descriptions of Typical Small Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers

Back to Sam's Laser FAQ Table of Contents.

Introduction, Suitability, Links to Other

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

CO2 Laser Safety

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

although the front can still be burned to a crisp!

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

ngers heal; burnt eyes don't.

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Reasons to Choose a CO2 or Nd:YAG Laser

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Comments on CO2 Laser Eiciency

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

(From: Professor Siegman (siegman@stanford.edu).)

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Comparison of CO2 and Nd:YAG Lasers for Industrial

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

CO2 lasers generally produce either a dot-mode or a ring-mode beam

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Operational Hazards with CO2 Lasers

Detecting or Locating CO2 Laser Beam

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

On-Line Introduction to CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Module 4-2 Gas Laser Power Supplies - covers the general

Emission and Absorption.

Links to Information on CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Parallax Technology, Inc., a manufacturer and servicer of CO2 laser tubes

Back to Carbon Dioxide Lasers Sub-Table of Contents.

Types and Excitation of CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

seals of the laser tube may be a signicant factor is degradation of performance

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Types of CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Detailed specications, mechanical drawings, and product manuals, may be

Flowing Gas CO2 Lasers

Sealed CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

(From: Dr. George Wood.)

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

(DLgth is discharge/gas reservoir length corresponding to the rather large

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

surrounding water jacket) is about 14 Torr.

Transverse Excited Atmospheric (TEA) CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Slab Type CO2 Lasers

Waveguide CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

RF Excited CO2 Lasers

Sam's Laser FAQ - Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Gas Dynamic CO2 Laser

Comparison of DC and RF Excitation