Hey Everyone,
I went out earlier today to check out this Synrad 60-1 CO2 laser and brought back some video footage to share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReAyA74_UQo
The gas in this laser is excited by basically a mini radio station producing many hundreds of watts at 40 MHz. The lasing cavity is actually twice the length of the laser head due to the transverse pumped Z-fold cavity. This video shows this laser burning through 3/8" plexi glass and making around 90W running at 1000Hz.
Enjoy!
Adam