The traveling‐wave excitation method has been applied to a helical electrode‐type TE N2laser to increase the laser output as well as to obtain good beam quality. The traveling‐wave excitation was achieved by dividing the discharge into ten sections. The discharge time interval between sequent section can be controlled by the length of coaxial cables. Primary experimental results show that the beam cross section is circular and the output in the direction of the traveling wave is 2.2 times that in the other direction. The laser output with a reflecting mirror is approximately two orders of magnitude larger than that without a mirror. The decrease of laser output with increasing pulse repetition rate has been explained and discussed in connection with the long‐lived nitrogen afterglow phenomena.