Integral plug-in RF module in a CO2 hybrid-waveguide laser:

Its performance and overall evaluation

R. Villagomez†, R. Lopez, R. Cortes, V. Coello

CICESE Campus Monterrey. Ángel M. Villarreal 425 Col. Chepevera, C.P. 64030 Monterrey, N. L. México. CP 64030

Abstract:

This work describes the performance of a compact “in-house built” radio frequency excited CO2 slab

waveguide laser which has the innovation of having a plugged-in RF generator-amplifier module directly

connected into the positive electrode of the laser head. The design circuit parameters include a matching

circuit and a feed-through element as a whole. The overall laser performance takes into account the

waveguide dimension (y-axis) as approximately one tenth of the free-space transverse dimension (x-axis).

The optical resonator is calculated to be in the regime of the negative branch for unstable confocal

resonators, having focal lengths of f1 = 21.49 cm and f2 = 19.39 cm with geometrical amplification of 1.108.

Optical output coupling mirror was set to ~9.7%. The calculated waveguide length is 37.73 cm whilst the

total resonator length was adjusted to 42 cm to allow coupling losses less than 1%. The laser operational

efficiency was about 12% and the output beam quality of 1.13 which is close to the ideal Gaussian beam.

The optical output power was accomplished by playing with different gas compositions to have a final

optimized gas proportion of 1:1:2.7:0.3 correspondingly to CO2, N2, He and Xe as admixture.

Key words: Lasers, Carbon Dioxide; Waveguide, Slab

†
Further Information:
R. V. (Correspondent postal address): Ángel M. Villarreal 425 Col. Chepevera, C.P. 64030 Monterrey, N. L. México.
C.P. 64030.
email: rvillago@cicese.mx; Telephone: +52 81 8348 3088; Fax: +52 81 8346-4380
I. Introduction

RF pumped CO2 waveguide lasers have been done for over 10 or more years ago. This paper, as far as our

knowledge is, point out the first note on the integration of a compact RF amplifier-generator [1] into the

positive electrode of the laser head, which in turn is the top-roof for the amplifying media waveguide. The

outcome here presented, do well in a more easy-to-build laser head, from the electrical and optical point of

view and design. As our technique of putting all together; RF generator, matching network and the feed-

through, inside the laser head, lead us to the need to perform an overall evaluation of the setup

performance. The use of basic expressions for the optical coupling losses are used to set the experimental

values in our system. Also, and to be experimentally self-consistent, we need to evaluate the beam quality

by fixing our experimental data to the basics for the quality factor M2. As the radio frequency waveguide

lasers are today one of the most utilized systems for industrial applications, we propose to integrate the RF

exciter and the amplifying media as one compact unit. CO2 lasers can be designed to be; all metal or hybrid

waveguides; using part metal and part dielectric materials for their amplifying media. In hybrid design a

dielectric material such as Al2O3 (dielectric constant ε=9.95) is employed to form the side walls for the

waveguide while the top and bottom sides play the roll of metallic electrodes. The main characteristic of a

CO2 slab waveguide laser is that combines transversally, the RF discharge and the optical propagation for

the stimulated emission of light. RF discharge generation is quite different from other discharge

technologies, not comparable to DC or AC. In view of the fact that radio frequency fluctuates rapidly in

time, electrons generated, which form the ionized plasma in the hollow cavity, “virtually” never dies. As

electrons never reach the metallic electrodes, thus never ablate their surface, CO2 molecules do not

disassociate in time. As a consequence, a longer lasting life for the gas mixture is possible, increasing laser

life as long as its inner cavity is less contaminated. In the present work we design and built the hybrid-

amplifying media by choosing a metallic (Al) roof-and-ground waveguide with dielectric spacers

(dielectric constant ε=9.95) that act as the waveguide walls. Six pairs of coils were symmetrically placed

throughout the waveguide electrodes to distribute the inductive coupling and to balance the voltage across

the length of the active medium; consequently, we could have a uniform RF discharge inside the whole

waveguide media, providing its complete exploit.

II. Basic concepts

When the walls used to confine the laser media are as close as to start interacting with the laser resonator

standing wave, its modal behavior begins to perform different than that for a free space media, as a

consequence of the optical interaction on the boundaries. Marcatili and Schmeltzer [2] reported calculations

for the allowed propagation modes inside a dielectric waveguide with cylindrical geometry by solving the

wave equation for the free space and dielectric boundary conditions. Thus the field components were

coupled to the waveguide walls. Krammer [3] developed a similar mathematical expression for the field (E)

and the wave vector (k=β+iα) on rectangular waveguides and two different materials. Hill [4] simplified

Kramer expressions by taking one of the materials as metal and the other as dielectric. Those expressions

are written here in Eq. (1) through Eq. (3), where E denotes the polarized field amplitude along the x-axis.

2a and 2b are the waveguide height and width, while m and n denote the lateral and transverse modes.

− 1 ⎡ cos ⎛ mπx ⎞ ⎤ ⎡ cos ⎛ nπy ⎞ ⎤ odd , (1)

Emn ( x, y ) = (ab) 2 ⎢ ⎜ ⎟⎥ ⎢ ⎜ ⎟⎥; m, n =
⎣ sen ⎝ 2a ⎠⎦ ⎣ sen ⎝ 2b ⎠⎦ even

2π ⎡ 1 ⎛ mλ ⎞ 1 ⎛ nλ ⎞ ⎤ ,
2 2

β mn ≈ ⎢1 − ⎜ ⎟ − ⎜ ⎟ ⎥ (2)
λ ⎣⎢ 2 ⎝ 4a ⎠ 2 ⎝ 4b ⎠ ⎦⎥

m2 ⎡ λ ⎤ n2 ⎡ λ ⎤
2 2
⎛ − ⎞ ⎛ − ⎞
( ) ( )
1 1
α mn ≈ Re ⎜ ε ε − 1 2 ⎟+ Re ⎜ ε − 1 2 ⎟, (3)
a ⎢⎣ 4a ⎥⎦ ⎝ ⎠ b ⎢⎣ 4b ⎥⎦ ⎝ ⎠
a a b

where α refers to the phase and β is the attenuation constant.

The overall round trip optical waveguiding losses, Γw can be calculated using the expression:

− j 2lαm,n 2
Γw = 1− e
, (4)

where l is the length of the waveguide and αm,n is the attenuation constant given by Eq (3). Boulnois and

Agrawal [5] have derived an approximation from the diffraction integral for the calculation of the coupling

losses, which is written as:

1
Γc = 1 − cmm ⋅ cnn 2 , (5)
where
2
⎛ n4 ⎞
2
⎛ m2 πm4 m4 ⎞ n2 πn 4
cmm = ⎜ 1 − − + ⎟ cnn = ⎜ 1 − − + ⎟
⎝ 6 N m1.5 240 N m2 .5 72 N m3 ⎠ ⎝ 6 N n1.5 240 N n2.5 72 N n3 ⎠
, and , (6)

with Nm=a2/4zλ and Nn=b2/4zλ, where a is the height (gap), b is the width, z the mirror separation from the

waveguide, λ the laser wavelength, m the lateral mode number and n the transverse mode number. This

approximation is valid for N>1 and has an accuracy 0.5% for N=1. Hill [4] also calculates the allowed

mode frequency for the waveguide resonator, Eq. (7), where j is the longitudinal mode number and c the

speed of light. If one compare the relationship between the frequency of the fundamental mode in a free

space laser (first term from Eq. (7) and the frequency in a waveguide laser, it will be easy to note how the

allowed mode density in the waveguide is much higher than that in a free space laser with the same length.

This characteristic leads to a more efficient gain media in a laser, thus, leading to higher output powers,

Witteman, et. al. [6].

jc cλ ⎛ m 2 n 2 ⎞ . (7)
ν j ,mn ≈ + ⎜ + ⎟
2 L 8 ⎜⎝ a 2 b 2 ⎟⎠

One practical rule to decide if a particular system acts like a hollow waveguide is to fulfill the condition N

< 10, where N is the Fresnel number given by: (a2/λl). Here λ is the wavelength and l is the waveguide

length. For a fundamental Gaussian beam, its propagation is completely characterized by the beam waist,

w0, and waist position, z0. The beam radius as a function of z, w(z), can be calculated using the following

expression:

⎡ λ (z − z0 )⎤ ,
2
(8)
w( z ) = w0 1 + ⎢ ⎥
⎣ πw0 ⎦
2

where λ is the laser wavelength. However, considering a non-perfect-Gaussian laser beam, there is a simple

model [similar to Eq. (5)] to represent which includes the dimensionless propagation factor M2.

12
πw02 ⎛ w2 ⎞ . (9)
M2 = ⎜ − 1⎟
λ (z − z 0 ) ⎜⎝ w02 ⎟⎠

In recent years, the factor M2 or k = 1/M2, has become an important parameter to describe the quality of a

laser beam. The spot size and divergence of the beam can be easily predicted. If the incoming beam is a

TEM00, then the spot size will be given by having the spot diameter expressed as d00= (4λf)/(πDin), which is

an ideal case. In the event that the incoming beam has another mode structure different from the ideal, then
the focused beam will lead to a spot size larger than d00, i.e. M-times larger than the ideal Gaussian beam

value, one can write the spot beam diameter as d00= (M4λf)/(πDin), where λ refers to the wavelength, f to

the focal length and Din is the incoming beam diameter. M2 not only gives a measure for the beam spot size,

but for its divergence. Specifically, the beam will diverge M times faster than the ideal beam.

III. Laser head construction: Metal-ceramic waveguide

The waveguide consisted of two rectangular aluminum electrodes with polished surfaces. These electrodes

were built to have an internal labyrinth-like hollow for fluid (water) cooling. They are separated from each

other by ceramic (Al2O3: dielectric constant ε = 9.95) rectangular strips forming a rectangular waveguide of

cross section of 2 mm by 20 mm. To match the resonator mode volume and the waveguide-to-mirror

separation we took up a Fresnel number Nm=1, a gap value a =2 mm and wavelength λ=10.6 µm. The

overall length for our waveguide (z=l) is calculated as l=377.35 mm, using Nm=a2/4λ z. It is important to

describe the entire equivalent circuit in terms of each component. To simplify our analysis, those

components are: The self sustained RF oscillator-amplifier, its matching circuit L4 and C5 (0-150 pf), the

RF feed-through L5 and R3 and the waveguide structure represented by L6 and C6, see Fig. 1. To pump the

laser media, the RF oscillator-amplifier was calibrated to generate a signal frequency of 81 MHz by means

of the variable capacitors C1, C2, C3 and C5 to finally excite the plasma inside the capacitor C6 which

physically is the laser amplifying media. The circuit composed by the R3 and L5 represents the

conventional feed-through used in other experimental setups. Generally speaking, the feed-through is a

passive element that may introduce losses which, in turn and for our specific case, are taken into account in

order to calculate the main circuit component values. The hollow waveguide (discharge volume), here

represented by C6 has to become stable in terms of the gas ionization at a specific chamber pressure. The

final equivalent circuit, for this capacitance C6 = 47.87x10-12 Farad, is calculated by having three physical

capacitors placed in parallel; say C’1, C’2 and C’3. C’1 and C’3 are identical because, as it is mention above,

they are built by aluminum plates and ceramic spacers while C’2 is the capacitor formed by the metallic

electrodes and the gas mixture inside the hollow waveguide. To have a uniform intensity distribution in the

discharge volume, it was necessary to introduce, but not limited to, six inductors in parallel symmetrically

distributed along the entire electrode length [9, 10]. The total distributed inductance, L6 = 2.9x10-6 nH,

satisfies the resonance frequency of 81 MHz and is calculated having 6 inductors of 483.9027 nH each.
For planar waveguide CO2 lasers, operating at the appropriate temperature, the optimum output coupling is

close to 10%. Therefore, when designing the main laser structure, one has to be aware of the round-trip

cavity losses. The round-trip cavity loss is given as 1-1/M² where M is the lateral magnification. In order to

have reasonable mode discrimination, a small magnification M, roughly speaking 1.1, is needed. This is

improved on by using a hybrid-Resonator proposed by Hall and Hill [7] which is stable in one dimension

(free space) while unstable in the other (waveguide gap) where the loss per round-trip is now given by 1-

1/M. In our case, the resonator radius of curvature for the total reflector mirror was R1=42.99 cm and the

output coupling mirror R2=38.79 cm, consequently having a resonator lateral magnification of 1.108 and

focal lengths (f=R/2) of f1=21.49 cm and f2=19.39 cm respectively.

With the help of Eq. (5) and Eq. (6), the calculated coupling loss due to the mirror separation from the

hollow waveguide result to be less than 1% for a 6 mm separation in our setup. This calculations were

made for mode parameters m=10 and n=1 and waveguide cross section of 2.0 mm by 20 mm, see Fig. 2.

IV. Laser performance analysis

The laser container was under vacuum to about 10-5 Torr, and just after this vacuum is reached, we

introduce the gas mixture with a final composition of CO2:N2:He:Xe to a corresponding ratio of 1:1:2.7:0.3.

Such a composition was controlled by mixing each gas separately in a manifold cavity.

We made several ionization tests for different gas pressures and different gas mixtures, in Fig. 3 we can

observe the behavior corresponding to power measurements versus the total internal pressure. In this case

we reach the maximum efficiency at 44 Torr.

After the laser is turned on and lasing under stable conditions, we proceed to measure the 1-D beam quality

along the x-axis (horizontal). One factor to be measured is the M2 factor. We used Eq. (8) and Eq. (9) to fit

our experimental results using a MathCad code program. Fig. 4 shows experimental measurements

(symbols) and the solid line the predicted values as calculated from Eq. (9). Here the coordinates are

normalized to the real values of the laser spot size at the output plane of the focusing lens (y-axis) and the

x-axis for the actual lens focal length around 32 cm.

The fitting parameter is M2 running from 10 to 1 where unity represents the ideal Gaussian beam shape.

The program includes a merit function defined as: f = ∑ DT − DE 2 , where DT stands for the theoretical

values and DE represents the experimental data. Our fitting procedure stops when the merit function is less
than 0.01. Under this criteria, our program stops iterations for M2 = 1.13.The experimental error in our

measurements is then, less than 2%. Experimental data were collected automatically by using an in-house

2-D beam profiler specially designed to monitor in real time the beam quality from CO2 lasers. The beam

profiler uses a pyroelectric detector mounted on a y-axis stage. This detector collects the laser beam which

is deflected by a rotating moving mirror that reflects the beam onto the detector surface. To calibrate our 2-

D profiler instrument, we proceed to modulate the laser by pulsing the RF power generator thus, by

collecting the laser output power in terms of the RF duty-cycle of the pulsing source. Fig. 5 shows the

congruence between the 2-D beam profiler output and a Coherent, INC. Field-Master GS which is used to

compare and double-check our pyroelectric detector response.

V. Conclusions and final remarks

We have successfully designed and built a compact sealed-off slab CO2 laser using a RF generator-

amplifier electrically “integrated” into the positive electrode of the laser head. The self-sustained RF circuit

includes the matching and the feed-through networks as part of the main RF-generator. An unstable hybrid-

resonator, with lateral magnification of 1.108, was used as optical feedback with a coupling hole of near

10% the reflective useful area. We opt for doing our measurements using a reasonable RF input power, i.e.

100W. In this mode an optical output power of 12.42 Watts was reached giving an electrical-to-optical

operational efficiency in excess of 12%. We observed the optimum gas mixture of 1:1:2.7 for CO2:N2:He

with 0.3 of Xe admixture at 45 Torr. RF coupling between the waveguide electrode and the resonant

coupler circuit from our RF generator [1] was better than 96%. A value of 1.13 for the laser beam quality

factor M2 was measured using a 2-D beam profiler. Although our experiments were performed at low

power using one RF module, our laser system can be modified in such a manner that it can hold several RF

circuits integrated into the slab positive electrode to increase optical power radiation, in terms of this

number of RF modules. Finally, the laser operates at room temperature.

Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge to the Mexican ministry of science and technology, CONACyT, for their support

through the research grant: 42944.

References

1. R. Villagómez and R. López, "High-efficiency RF signal coupled to a CO2 waveguide slab laser," Opt.

Express Vol. 13 No. 12, (2005) 4607-4610.

2. Marcatili E A and Schmeltzer R A, “Hollow Metallic and Dielectric Waveguides for Long Distance

Optical Transmission and Lasers”, Bell Syst. Tech. J. Vol. 43, (1964) 1783–1809.

3. Krammer H “Field Configurations and Propagation Constants of Modes in Hollow Rectangular

Dielectric Waveguides”, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. Vol. 12, (1976) 505 – 507.

4. Hill C A “Transverse Modes of Plane-Mirror Waveguide Resonators”, IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

Vol. 24, (1988) 1936 – 1946.

5. J L Boulnois and G P Agrawal "Mode Discrimination and Coupling Losses in Rectangular-

Waveguides Resonators with Conventional and Phase-Conjugate Mirrors ", J. Opt. Soc. Am. Vol. 72,

(1982) 853-859.

6. Witteman W J, Ilieva M, Ilyukhin B I, Kolesnikov V N, Ochkin V N and Udalov Yu B, “Waveguide

CO2 Laser whit a Power per Unit Length of About 1 W/cm”, Sov. J Quantum Electron. Vol. 22, (1992)

879 – 880.

7. Hall D R and Hill C A “Handbook of Molecular Lasers”, pp 210–231Ed. P K Cheo (New York and

London: Mercel Dekker) (1987).

8. Bowick Chris, “RF circuits Design”, SAMS, a division of Prentice Hall Computer Publishing, 1995.

9. He D. and Hall D. R., “Longitudinal Voltage Distribution in Transverse RF Discharge Waveguide

Lasers”, Applied. Physics. J., Vol. 54, (1983) 4367 - 4373.

10. Abramski K M, Colley A D, Baker H J and Hall D R, “Power scaling of large-area transverse radio

frequency discharge CO2 lasers”, Applied . Phyisics. Letters.Vol. 54, (1989) 1833 – 1835.
Figure captions

Fig. 1. Design circuit for the entire laser system. RF exciter as part of the amplifying laser media

equivalent circuit.

Fig. 2. Calculated coupling losses.

Fig. 3. This picture shows the power variation versus gas operating pressure. For this laser head we

obtained the best performance at 45 Torr.

Fig. 4. Quality factor measurements. Here M2 is calculated by using Eq. (9) represented by the solid line

and the experimental data represented by the scattered symbols (in red the error bars for each measured

point). The lens focal length is 320 mm.

Fig. 5. Calibration curves: 2-D beam profiler (blue) and Field Master GS (red)
Figure 1

RFC

Vcc = 48V DC
C4
R1
feed-through
network
C1 C2 C3
L4 L5
MRF151
R3
R2
C5
L1 L3 L2 L6
C6
matching
network
coupler
resonant
circuit laser head
circuit
equivalent
circuit
rf-feedback
Figure 2

1.00

0.80
Copling losses (%)

0.60

0.40

0.20

0.00
2 4 6 8 10
Mirror separation (mm)
Figure 3

14
Power (Watts)

12

10

8
38 40 42 44 46 48 50
Pressure (Torr)
Figure 4

4.0

3.5

3.0
Beam radio (mm)

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Optical axis (cm)

Figure 5

200
Optical Power (W)

140

80

20
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Duty Cycle (%)