Current rise-time limitation of the large volume x-ray preionized discharge-pumped XeCl laser

Abstract

Sixty-six joules has been extracted from a 22-l active volume, 5-atm laser mixture, in a 180-ns (FWHM) optical pulse. The best efficiency obtained under these conditions was 0.8%, based on the available energy stored in the double Blumlein. For the laser chamber geometry used in this experiment it was essential that the surface track path between the positive high-voltage electrode and any ground be a minimum of 3 times the interelectrode separation. The small-signal gain under these operating conditions was 6.0% cm−1 and the measured absorption at the peak of the gain was 0.4% cm−1. We observe that for both volumetric scaling and pulse length scaling the current rise time is of critical importance.

Fundamentals and Current Status of Excimer Lasers

“…Concerning, this time, a discharge excited excimer laser, the biggest one remains probably the laser built at N.R.L. [44]. Water lines were used to store the energy and to transfer it to the discharge (Fig.35).…”

Inductance calculation of discharge chamber for transverse gas-flow laser system

“…The self-inductance for a bar with a specially shaped cross-section may be, in the order of magnitude, estimated by the mutual inductance formula (14) with the substitution of the distance S~j by the mean geometrical distance Say whose value depends on the shape of the cross-section, as shown in table I (~r is assumed = 1).…”

“…Similarly, the mutual inductance between two long bars with some specially shaped cross-section may be estimated by formula (14) with the substitution of Say for S~j, see table II.…”

“…For a gas-static or longitudinal gas-flow discharge laser system, two conductive side walls, electrically connected to the grounded electrode and situated at a distance h from the discharge region, as close as possible but still allowed by the discharge insulation requirements, are often used as the discharge current returning path in order to reduce the inductance L; and for this kind of geometry, L can be easily estimated [14]. However, for a transverse gas-flow system, the situation is different.…”

Simple model of halogen depletion in XeCl discharge pumped lasers

“…The XeCl excimer laser pumped by a pulsed discharge has the highest energy characteristics [1,2] and is distinguished by both the stability and less aggressive properties of the mixture, compared with KrF, XeF, and ArF lasers. The wide applications of XeCl excimer lasers, which are used as an intense UV radiation source, in industry and science, for example: optical microlithography, active gas cleaning, medicine, are still giving a great interest to research in this field.…”