The elemental copper vapour laser is a widely used laser from a family of metal vapour lasers for applications such as dye laser pumping, micromachining etc. In this paper, we report the development and performance of IGBT-based pulsed power supply that replaced conventional thyratron-based power supply for 4.7 cm diameter, 150 cm long copper vapour laser. The laser tube delivered an average power of 51 W, which with conventional power supply was giving 40 W. The IGBT-based power supply offers considerable reduction in the running cost of the laser. It is more user-friendly when compared with the conventional power supply.

Development of master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system of copper bromide laser (CBL) operating at 110 W average power is reported. The spectral distribution of power at green (510.6 nm) and yellow (578.2 nm) components in the output of a copper bromide laser is studied as a function of operating parameters. The electrical input power was varied from 2.6 to 4.3 kW, the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was changed from 16 to 19 kHz, and the pressure of the buffer gas (neon) was kept fixed at 20 mbar. When the electrical input power was increased to 4.3 kW from 2.6 kW, the tube-wall temperature also increased to 488°C from 426°C but the ratio of the green to yellow power decreased to 1.53 from 3.73. The ratio of green to yellow power decreased to 1.53 from 1.63 when the PRF of the laser was increased to 19 kHz from 16 kHz. These observations are explained in terms of electron temperature, energy levels of transitions, and voltage and current waveforms across the laser head.