Abstract
Basic operating principles of slab CO2 lasers are reviewed. By using area scaling of the laser active medium in the form of waveguide slab which is cooled by diffusion, high average output power can be generated with no gas flow. The specific output power (output/slab area) reaches up to 10 to 20k W/m2. Radio-frequency discharge of the range of 100MHz is used to ensure effective laser excitation. Waveguide-unstable hybrid resonator is the key to extract output beam of good focusibility. Beam shaping technique to make the output beam symmertic is also described.
