This paper deals with the characteristics of glow discharge for high power cw CO
2 laser excitation. It is found that J/P
2 (J: current density, P: gas pressure) on the cathode surface has the constant value of 6.25×10
-3 mA/Torr
2-cm
2 for the Mo cathode. The CO
2 dissociation in the gas mixture is dominated by the phenomena near the cathode, since the steady-stage CO
2 concentration after discharge closely depends on the kind of cathode materials The discharge gap length gave the effect on the maximum discharge power. The optimum gap length was about 4 cm at the pressure of 100 Torr. For the gap length above 4 cm, type of the silent-discharge assisted glow discharge is recommended.
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