Instability mechanisms discussed to date are unable to account for the behavior of long-pulse self-sustained discharge-pumped XeCl devices. We develop theoretical arguments supporting the concept that halogen donor depletion during the discharge pulse is the principal cause of discharge collapse and the termination of lasing. The theoretical prediction that the duration of the glow phase should vary as the inverse square of the initial halogen donor concentration is verified by experimental results furnished by a study of a resistively stabilized long-pulse xenon chloride laser.

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Theoretical predictions of the nature of the premature termination of the laser output of a long-pulse discharge-pumped rare-gas-halide laser are tested on a large scale x-ray preionized XeCl system. Results are presented which support the theory that the termination is caused by local depletion of the halogen donor molecule leading to discharge instabilities. Predictions of methods of extending the laser output pulse duration have been made and experimentally demonstrated.

We have investigated the collisional1y induced line shapes corresponding to the! So -+ 1 D2 4575-A electric quadropoie transition in neutral calcium for a variety of rare-gas perturber species.We interpret our results in terms of molecular potentials. 977