How long must the electrode rails be?
The electrode rails can be almost any length. I found it easy to make lasers work well at any electrode length between 10 and 3 inches. The longer electrodes tend to give a brighter output and a narrower beam. I have not yet tried making electrodes longer than 10 inches simply because I don’t have any dielectric pieces longer than 11 inches. I hope to try making some 24 inch long electrode rails soon if I can get some dielectric material of appropriate length. I have put a video on youtube that shows one of my 3″ long TEA lasers working. See my links section. In the video, I can pick it up and aim it at different targets. I see the possibility of a maximum electrode length beyond which there would be no further gain in laser output because of speed of light or current flow limitations or something similar but, I can not say as I am not a laser expert.
