Does anyone know of a source of flashlamp capacitors to use in Nd:YAG
lasers? In particular, I'm looking for an 18 uF 2 kV capacitor to use in an
old Continuum/Quantel YG681. It is NOT simply a matter of finding a
capacitor with these nominal specs, which is easy to do. It is important
for good results that the capacitor:
1. have minimal inductance
2. have minimal series resistance
3. hold these specs for many (multi-millions) of cycles
I have come to learn that increasing series resistance with time under
discharge conditions can seriously limit laser performance. So it is
essential to find the best capacitors. In the case of the old capacitors
that were in the flashlamp discharge electronics, Quantel/Continuum removed
all manufacturer information so that you would not know the source! I have
subsequently found that Nd:YAG vendors seem to be reluctant to provide this
information if you call them.
So, does anyone have any good experience/suggestions here? If I get any
good leads I'll disseminate them to this forum.
Thanks
Mark Sulkes
Tulane University
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