ABSTRACT
Corrections of the voltage pulse shape (steepening of the leading edge) with corrective (peaking) capacitors Cc, connected in parallel to the discharge gap is widely used in high-power nanosecond pulse generators used as switches, spark gaps of different types [1]. In a number of works on copper vapour laser (see, e.g., [2-4]) correction was also applied to the excitation pulse shape by connecting the corrective (peaking) capacitor in parallel with the discharge gap. It should be noted that, as a rule, record results in terms of efficiency and output power of the copper vapour lasers were obtained using corrective capacitances. In each case the electric capacitance Cc of the peaking capacitor was chosen empirically. For example, the maximum practical efficiency for a copper vapour laser (lp = 26.5 cm, dp = 2 cm) [3], operating in the frequency mode with f = 8 kHz, was obtained at Cc = CS. At the same time, in [4] where a copper vapour laser (lp = 80 cm, dp = 2.8 cm) briefly obtained the average output power of 43.5 W at a practical efficiency of 1%, the capacitance of the correction capacitor was 730 pF at the capacitance of the storage capacitor of 2000 pF.
