There exists a type of gas laser which achieves much higher power densities at the cost of destroying its own lasmix. It vents the lasmix from a bottle, though the optic cavity, and from there presumably into the atmosphere. It does this for the sake of cooling.

I have been mulling on how to implement a plasma pump inside the cavity for about two years now, and just connected the dots with just enough rigor to blog about.

If the floor and ceiling of the cavity is coated with a dielectric material and the RF wave powering the thing is a phase modulated standing wave (Like an IQ modulator.), then the dielectric barrier discharge should, I hope, favor certain locations along the length of the cavity. If the glow discharge further is able to exert pressure, then what we should have is a pump with no moving parts and potential for extremely fast flow. - This ought to enable the high cooling rates needed for adding another power output multiplier to the original house-of-mirrors design I have spoken about.

(Just 16 hours ago W2AEW uploaded a video explaining how IQ modulators work, and together with my study of variable capacitance diode tuners over the past month, these were the last pieces of the puzzle. Thank you Alan, I wish you and you ankle all the best. 73 :)

p.s. If the phase modulation scheme does not work, then an array of addressable dielectric sections should. This seems inelegant by comparison though.

Since the last time I posted I have been very busy! I have completed one year of basic metalworking studies and gotten a diploma for that, and now I'm half a year in on getting one as a CNC machinist / programmer. The mystery box picture I posted almost two years ago contained a tiny lathe, and obviously I have moved on to bigger machines now. Much bigger. I have nascent plans on starting a business selling shiny consumer goods mostly made out of electroplated aluminum, so I may fund my robot army.