5. Industrial gas lasers

5.1 Important parameters

The main advantages and disadvantages of gas lasers compared with solid-state lasers have already been mentioned: a wide variety of lasers can be used, time regimes are either continuous, pulsed or repetitive pulsed, beam qualities are generally good and thermal limitations are less stringent than with solid-state lasers.

As far as measurement lasers are concerned, He-Ne lasers, with their single transverse mode beam (diffraction-limited divergence), are common. In addition, emission is strictly continuous, which is important for certain applications.

Industrial gas lasers, with their high average power, are mainly CO ₂ lasers; the optical requirements concerning...