Design and implementation of tunable copper vapor laser and its application in degradation of phenol in water

Abstract

This work was devoted to design and construct a tunable copper vapor laser system and to select a single wavelength each time, using a volume holographic diffraction grating. Also the work aim to the study of the effect of the discharge current and pressure inside the laser cavity on the laser lines intensity. The tuning was accomplished by the rotation of the grating thus changing the angle of incidence of the laser on the grating and so the amplification exclusively had done for specific wavelength according to Bragg law. The results showed that different laser wavelengths were recorded and tuned like 726.47, 665.04, 603.60, 588.07, 558.59, 516.14, 481.61 and 447.84nm, one wavelength each time. To use the constructed Copper laser, the green and violet lines (516.14, 481.61 nm respectively) were used to study the photo-reduction of phenol in water. The photocatalysis used here to provide electron-hole pair to attack the phenol molecules. The activity of semiconductors (ZnO and Al2O3) catalyst for photo-degradation of phenol has been investigated, the dependence of phenol degradation on laser irradiation time, catalyst concentration was also investigated.