Efficient, long pulse XeF(C→A) laser at moderate electron beam pump rate

Abstract

Efficient, long pulse lasing on the XeF(C→A) electronic transition has been demonstrated in an electron beam pumped device at a moderate pump rate of ∼250 kW/cm3 . A mixture of F2, NF3, Xe, Kr, and Ar at a total gas pressure of 1.6 atm was excited with a 700-ns pulse. Lasing occurred for 400 ns during the excitation pulse. The laser spectrum showed a peak wavelength of 483 nm and a bandwidth of 16 nm. An intrinsic efficiency of 0.7% was determined. The laser output energy was 1 J. Further improvements in laser performance are expected under fully optimized conditions.

Improvements in long-pulse, electron-beam pumped XeF(C→A) laser performance

“…The research at high pump rate has led to the identification of an optimum five-component laser gas mixture.2'3 Using such a mixture, we recently achieved and reported the first efficient XeF(C-A) lasing at low ebeam pump rate (-250 kW/cm3) and low gas pressure (1.6 AiM). 4 In contrast to the afterglow lasing observed, without injection, during the prior work at high excitation rate,3 lasing was observed çijjflq the 700-ns e-beam pulse at the reduced pump rate.…”

Repetitively pulsed operation of an injection-controlled high-power XeF(C to A) excimer laser

“…Thus, the XeF( C + A ) laser is a scalable optical source that is continuously tunable over a large portion of the visible spectrum. Various types of excitation have been investigated [ 11- [4] and efficient operation of this system has been achieved by means of electron-beam pumping. For a high excitation rate ( -10 M W / c m 3 ) using a short-pulse electron beam, the gain of this excimer system exceeds 0.03 cm-' near the peak of the tuning spectrum, which permits efficient injection-controlled operation with good beam quality by using an unstable resonator [2].…”