Talk:Carbon dioxide laser

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There's a lot of really good technical material here but it's hard for the non-specialist to understand. (I don't even know if it means anything' let alone if it's correct). RJFJR 02:22, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

i.r. doesn't look like the correct abbreviation for Infra-red to me. RJFJR 02:22, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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I've done a lot of clean-up of the article and removed the clean-up tag. Those things that I can personally verify are now correct, but the article as a whole could still use a going-over by a true subject-matter expert. I've re-marked it as a stub; perhaps that will encourage someone who really knows to chime in here.

Atlant 16:38, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

So far everything looks good to me. I'll see if I can't add anything more useful. I'm not a CO2 Laser Expert but I do know something about this laser.--Ldussan 01:38, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WORKING OF CO2 LASER

WHY BLASTING RESISTOR IS NOT USED IN CO2 LASERVipan hira 14:43, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

I think you mean a ballast resistor. I don't know. Are you sure they are not used? CW CO₂ lasers that don't use RF excitation certainly need constant-current high voltage. A ballast resistor seems like a good way to achieve that. In fact, I'm pretty sure the CO₂ lasers I worked with as a grad student had large ballast resistors in the power supplies. I remember replacing one of them once.

By the way, do not type in all capital letters. People will treat you as if you were SHOUTING AT THEM. It is not polite.--Srleffler 18:37, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Max power?

The current revision of Carbon dioxide laser says "The CO2 laser can be constructed to have powers between milliwatts (mW) and gigawatts (GW)."; this contradicts the current revision of Laser, which says "Carbon dioxide lasers emit up to 100 kW". Neither article gives references, so can we please have some? -- Whitepaw 19:01, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I clarified this with the best references I could find on short notice. Bottom line is both are right depending on whether you are talking about CW or Q-switched. --Chuck Sirloin 20:23, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Cheers, nice references -- Whitepaw 06:47, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry folks, the article still reads "continuous wave" and CO2 lasers are NOT the most powerful continuous wave lasers available. That honor belongs to chemical lasers, which achieve output powers at least an order of magnitude higher than CO2 devices. Free electron lasers are capable of powers even greater than that, but cannot be considered "continuous wave" devices. I know this to be true, as lasers are one of my hobbies, but I'll try to find formal citations later today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.81.101.245 (talk) 15:57, 26 November 2007 (UTC)