Intracavity plasma shutter for transversely excited CO2 lasers

An electrically triggered intracavity plasma switch is used to control the pulse shape and duration of TE CO2 laser pulses. The shuttering mechanism is shown to be due to beam deflection. Two modes of shutter operation are demonstrated, one producing long pulses 2–12 μs in duration, the other producing isolated gain switched spikes 100–200 ns in duration.