Solid-state power supply for gas lasers

A novel pulsed power supply for gas lasers is presented. The device uses only solid state components and is based on a capacitor bank discharge. Fast switching of the discharge is triggered by an insulated gate bipolar transistor. The terminal section of the power supply is a transformer designed to match the reactive capacitance of a gas discharge. Strokes up to 30 kV and 30 mA are achieved across the secondary windings of this transformer. The power supply delivers high voltage pulses with a duration between 0.5 and 50 mus and a repetition rate up to some kHz. The power supply has been tested on a longitudinal discharge quasi-cw regime CO2 laser. Laser pulses were generated with a duration down to the microseconds region, a peak power exceeding some kilowatts, and a repetition rate ranging from 200 Hz to a few kHz. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.