JPH0465174A - Gas laser - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently preliminarily ionize in a discharging region and to improve a laser output by oppositely disposing a pair of preliminarily ionizing pins substantially in parallel with a laser beam propagating direction to a preliminarily ionizing electrode. CONSTITUTION:Preliminarily ionizing electrodes 7 are disposed at both sides of a discharge electrode 1, and disposed oppositely to a rodlike preliminarily ionizing pin 17 and a preliminarily ionizing pin 19 formed in an inverted L state substantially in parallel with a laser beam 15 at a discharge distance l. Thus, since a preliminarily ionizing arc 21 is generated between the distance lin a direction substantially parallel to a laser beam propagating direction, the discharge region extended in the laser beam propagating direction is preliminarily ionized more uniform than that of prior art. Accordingly, since the beam width can be increased in response to the size of an exciting region width, a laser output can be improved as compared with that in the prior art.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a gas laser device, and particularly to a gas laser device that can efficiently pre-ionize the inside of a discharge region.

[Conventional technology]

In general, a gas laser device is known that is equipped with a pre-ionization electrode that pre-ionizes a discharge region that is formed between discharge electrodes and extends in the traveling direction of the laser beam (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 1999-1-1).
245579).

This type of conventional gas laser device has a pair of discharge electrodes 1 and 3, as shown in FIG. It is formed. A pre-ionization electrode 7 is arranged on both sides of the discharge electrode 1, and the pre-ionization electrode 7 has a pre-ionization pin 7a and a pre-ionization rail guide 7b arranged opposite each other, or as shown in FIG. Pair of pre-ionization pins 7
A, 7a are arranged facing each other.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional configuration, as shown in FIG.
Since the pre-ionization arc 9 generated from the pre-ionization electrode 7 occurs in a direction substantially perpendicular to the traveling direction of the laser beam 10 (perpendicular to the plane of the paper), it is not possible to uniformly pre-ionize the inside of the discharge region 5. There is a problem in that the beam width 13 is narrower than the excitation region width 11, and the laser output is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional techniques, to efficiently pre-ionize the inside of the discharge region, and to
An object of the present invention is to provide a gas laser device that can improve laser output.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a gas laser device equipped with a pre-ionization electrode that pre-ionizes a discharge region formed between a pair of discharge electrodes and extending in the traveling direction of a laser beam. , is characterized in that a pair of pre-ionization pins are arranged facing each other substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam.

[For production]

According to the present invention, since the pre-ionization electrode has a pair of pre-ionization pins disposed opposite to each other substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam, the pre-ionization arc is generated during the discharge distance 1.
Since the preionization occurs in a direction substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam, pre-ionization is more uniform in the discharge region extending in the traveling direction of the laser beam compared to the conventional method. Therefore, since the beam width can be widened in accordance with the width of the excitation region, the laser output is improved compared to the conventional one.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the cass laser device according to the present invention will be described in FIGS. 1 to 3, in which the same parts as in FIG.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals ] and 3 indicate a pair of discharge electrodes, and a discharge region 5 extending in the traveling direction of the laser beam 15 is formed between these discharge electrodes 1 and 3. Also,
Pre-ionization electrodes 7 (only one side is shown) are disposed on both sides of the discharge electrode 1, and the pre-ionization electrodes 7 are provided with a bar-shaped pre-ionization electrode approximately parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam 15 with a discharge distance l. It is constructed by arranging a pin 17 and a pre-ionization pin 19 formed in an inverted letter shape to face each other.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

A pre-ionization arc 21 occurs between the pre-ionization pin 17 and the pre-ionization pin 19 to pre-ionize the laser gas in the discharge region 5, and then a discharge occurs between the discharge electrodes 1.3 to pre-ionize the laser gas. The generated laser gas is excited and output as a laser beam 15.

According to this embodiment, the pre-ionization arc 21 occurs in a direction substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam 15 during the discharge distance 1, as shown in FIG. Compared to the case shown in FIG. In addition, since the pre-ionization arc 21 occurs over the discharge distance 1, a beam width 25 corresponding to the excitation region width 23 can be obtained, which improves the laser output compared to the conventional one. be able to.

In this embodiment, the same effect as increasing the number of pre-ionization electrodes 7 can be obtained.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment.

In this embodiment, a bar-shaped preliminary ionization pin 27 extends from the discharge electrode 1 side toward the discharge electrode 3 side, and a preliminary ionization pin 27 is formed in an inverted shape from the discharge electrode 3 side toward the discharge electrode 1 side. The ionization pins 29 are extended, and these pre-ionization pins 27.
29 constitute preliminary ionization electrodes 7 (only one side is shown) on both sides of the discharge electrode 3.

Even with this configuration, as shown in FIG. 2, the pre-ionization arc 21 can be generated at a certain distance l in a direction substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam 15. 5 can be pre-ionized uniformly, and the laser output can be improved compared to the conventional method.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the preionization electrode is made up of a pair of preionization pins arranged opposite each other substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam. Since it is generated almost parallel to the direction of laser beam movement, it is possible to pre-ionize uniformly within the discharge region extending in the direction of laser beam movement, and the beam width can be widened, improving laser output compared to conventional ones. In addition, the same effect as increasing the number of pre-ionization electrodes can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing one embodiment of the gas laser device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the laser beam of the same gas laser device, FIG. 3 is a side view showing another embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a front view showing another example of the conventional gas laser device, and FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the laser beam of the conventional gas laser device. 1.3...Discharge electrode, 5...Discharge area, 7...Preliminary ionization electrode, 15...Laser beam, 17. 19.
27゜29...Preliminary ionization pin, 21...Preliminary ionization arc.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a gas laser device equipped with a pre-ionization electrode that pre-ionizes a discharge region formed between a pair of discharge electrodes and extending in the traveling direction of the laser beam, the pre-ionization electrode comprises:
A gas laser device characterized in that a pair of preliminary ionization pins are arranged facing each other substantially parallel to the traveling direction of the laser beam.