700 W diffusion cooled, large area, 40.68 MHz excited CO2 laser employing split-wave hybrid confocal resonator

A novel non-waveguide, non-free-space CO2 laser resonator cavity, referred to as the split-wave hybrid (SWH) resonator, is described. Traditional resonator mirrors combined with two specially designed light reflecting electrode walls, which enclose the active medium, form the SWH resonator cavity. Light reflecting nails in the splitwave resonator act as wave-front-splitting mirrors in an interferometer, similar to a Fresnel double mirror or Lloyd mirror interferometer. Wave-front of the intra-cavity laser beam is significantly tilted with respect to the resonator walls, which facilitates lowest order mode selection in this resonator. Additionally, electrode wall surfaces contain discontinuities, which further enhances non-waveguide mode discrimination in the SWH resonator.