Strange Argon of 80's

[LesioQ]

Hello all,
I stumbled upon an exotic Argon laser tube, should I call it an 'insert'.
Quite elaborate glass structure, carbon disks design (like old Coherents).
Was factory new, until lower brewster stem came off.

Apparently it's symbol is/was: RA120-1, most likely German, built 1989.
It may have been a custom design / university special order. Stamped as 1.9 / 1.5 Watt.

What struck me most is this 10 coil (?) setup under the casing.
Anyone dare to make an educated guess of it's purpose ?
See pics.
Piotr.K

[VDX]

... are you shure, it's an Argon?

The coils and disks can point to a sort of Excimer or FEL ??

Viktor

[mixedgas]

That's a graphite disk ion laser for sure, manufacturer unknown.

Steve

[Eidetic]

Wonderful old tube! I'm certainly interested in adding it to the archive if you'd ever consider selling it.

[LesioQ]

Wonderful old tube! I'm certainly interested in adding it to the archive if you'd ever consider selling it.

Well, that would be the 4th or 6th from me but definitely the hardest one to ship from Europe

I just took measurements of these coils - they are 10 Ohm, so rather look like heaters.
And one more surprise - each of them covers a solidified metallic ingot inside glass:


This is mysterious. A ... Gallium ? Definitely not mercury, but with low melting point. May be Cadmium, but Cd lasers used to have their Cd ovens heatshielded ...
May it be that these are one-time-use Ar ampoules ?

[Eidetic]

Could the coils and plugs be part of a gas fill system? I'd expect that with an ion laser tube.

[LesioQ]

This may be the case, but how would this higher pressure Ar gas pocket join the main laser volume without pushing the molten metal to undesired location ...

[Diachi]

Perhaps a molecular sieve like those found in a HeCd for helium fill...?

[mixedgas]

There were a wide variety of metals under investigation for CW ion lasers, some of which were quite promising. Tin for example.
Thallium (toxic nasty !), arsenic, silver, tellurium, and the non-metals iodine, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, neon, nitrogen. All would have made very interesting lab lasers similar to and in some cases had better gain then the argon ion laser. The problem was finding a cathode with similar emission to tungsten-rhenium that would not be ripped to shreds by the plasma, and that is where development stopped. I suspect your looking at a tube for a radical material.
~
As for the heated side tubes, I would not guess either way without a XPS shot to identify the metal. If its indium, its probably a fill system. Anything else is probably a metal fill. I can tell you I see no zeolite there.
~
Steve

[LesioQ]

A few more pictures for interested parties: