Excitation mechanisms of the electron-beam-pumped atomic xenon (5<i>d</i>→6<i>p</i>) laser in Ar/Xe mixtures

Ohwa, Mieko; Moratz, Thomas J.; Kushner, Mark J.

doi:10.1063/1.343747

Cited by 95 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…It is commonly accepted that in high pressure e-beam sustained systems the upper laser levels of neutral xenon are populated by recombination and dissociation of ArXe ϩ ions which are formed in three particle collisions in the plasma. 10 This population mechanism suggests that the lasing characteristics will improve as the operating pressure of the gas mixture increases. For that reason we performed experiments in a pressure range up to half an atmosphere.…”

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confidence: 99%

Continuous wave near-infrared atomic Xe laser excited by a radio frequency discharge in a slab geometry

Tskhaǐ

Udalov

Peters

et al. 1995

Applied Physics Letters

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Near-infrared atomic Xe laser lines have been generated from an Ar:He:Xe laser gas mixture excited by a radio frequency ͑rf͒ discharge in a slab geometry. A maximum continuous wave ͑cw͒ output power of 1.5 W ͑270 W/l͒ was obtained at an rf frequency of 125 MHz from a gas mixture containing Ar:He:Xe ͑50:49:1͒ at a total gas pressure of 90 Torr. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.There is a steady growing interest in sources of coherent radiation which operate in the wavelength region of 2-3 m.1 Possible applications of such systems include the design of eye-safe radars, 2-4 the monitoring of the atmosphere and in medicine. [5][6][7] Until now the research in this wavelength region was concentrated mainly on the improvement of solid state lasers made from YAG and YLF crystals doped with rare earth metals like holmium, erbium, and thulium which are capable of operating in a pulsed mode as well as cw. So far, there are no other lasers capable of delivering a cw output on a reasonably high power level in this spectral domain.Recently, we published the first results concerning a new cw rf excited Ar:He:Xe laser with an output power of about 300 mW. 8 This laser operates in a multiline mode with 90% of the output concentrated in the two strongest atomic Xe lines: the 5d͓3/2͔ 1 Ϫ6p͓1/2͔ 0 transition with a wavelength of 2.65 m and the 5d͓3/2͔1 -6p͓3/2͔ 1 transition at 2.03 m. In principle, this laser competes with the abovementioned rare earth doped solid state lasers which also emit their radiation in the same spectral range and are reported to operate at the same power level.In this letter, we report on a different approach to enhance the output power of such an rf excited atomic Xe laser. By using a laser resonator in a planar configuration which is homogeneously filled with a gas discharge plasma we were able to increase substantially the volume of the active medium. It resulted in an increase of the output power to a maximum value of 1.5 W and also improved the efficiency with a factor 4 compared to our earlier results. 8 We have tested several electrode and resonator configurations. The experimental setup is discussed in more detail elswhere.8.9 Here we will give only a brief description of the equipment used in our experiments. A signal from a low power master oscillator was amplified in a wide band rf amplifier ͑Kalmus, model 124C͒ which is capable to deliver a rf output power of 500 W in the frequency range of 10 kHz-220 MHz. The forward and reflected rf power was measured with a digital power meter ͑Thruline 4421 from Bird Electronics Corp.͒. The excitation frequency used in our experiments was varied between 100 and 125 MHz. The frequency choice in each particular case was determined by the resonance conditions for the RLC circuit formed by the discharge impedance, the capacitance of the laser structure, and the inductance of the shunting coils connected parallel to the laser electrodes. The construction of the laser head used in the experiments was basically the same as used in Ref. 8. The ground electrode...

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confidence: 99%

Continuous wave near-infrared atomic Xe laser excited by a radio frequency discharge in a slab geometry

Tskhaǐ

Udalov

Peters

et al. 1995

Applied Physics Letters

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“…According to the data reported in [19], kxo + : 2 9 10 -31 cm6.s -1 for Tg = 300 K. Fulfillment of condition (2.5) implies that the three-body-recombination flux is bound to exceed the conversion flux because [20] about 90% of the recombination flux of Xe + ions is directed to the levels related to states 1 and 2 ( Fig. 1).…”

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Theoretical feasibility study of new high-efficiency continuous-wave lasers operating at electron transitions in the spectral regions from near ir to uv on the basis of unconventional mechanisms of forming the active gaseous media

et al. 2000

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This paper is a review of the results of theoretical studies related to the search for new mechanisms, which are not yet completely understood and have not been implemented so far, of forming the active laser media that offer the prospect of development of high-efficiency continuous-wave (cw) laser operating at electron transitions (in atoms or molecules) in a wide range of wavelengths (from near IR to UV). The main attention is paid to unconventional mechanisms of forming the population inversion of lasing-active levels. These mechanisms involve the intramultiplet (due to collisions with heavy particles) or ionization-induced (due to collisions with electrons) deactivation of the lowest lasing-active atomic level; the population of the upper lasing-active level as a result of three-body electron ion recombination induced by the presence of alkali impurity, with simultaneous intramultiplet decay of the lower level; the mechanism ensuring the lasing transitions between repulsing terms of the involved molecules; and the exchange of vibrational-electronic excitation (for example, exchange of two vibrational quanta of an excited hydrogen molecule for a single electronic quantum of the iodine atom).

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“…This phenomenon may be attributed to the so called electron collision mixing process. It was pointed out by Ohwa et al [6] in a theoretical analysis that a high electron density may cause a strong coupling between the 5d and 6p levels of Xe and in this way quench the laser process. This fact is reflected in the occurrence of the critical power deposition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic efficiency and critical power deposition in the e-beam sustained Ar:Xe Laser

1991

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Abstract.Experimental investigations on an e-beam sustained near infrared Ar :Xe laser have been carried out to determine the intrinsic efficiency at optimized conditions. A parametric study at different sustainer currents reveals a maximum output energy depending on current density. Up to 8 bar the optimized laser output power per unit volume increases linearly with 1.1 M W / l b a r . Intrinsic efficiencies of up to about 8% are feasible. The near infrared A r : X e laser has attracted much interest because this type of laser shows a high intrinsic efficiency and a high specific energy. It uses rare gases for the active medium resulting in a long gas lifetime. The wavelengths due to transitions between the 5d and 6p levels of Xe are between 1.73 and 3.51 gm and are short compared to that of a CO2 laser. There is no gas dissociation and no thermal population of the lower laser level so that cooling provisions are less critical. In this paper results will be presented from measurements on an e-beam sustained electrical discharge Ar :Xe laser. PACSThis technique has been successfully applied in the past for excimer laser studies [1] and for the Ar :Xe laser [2~4]. It uses the e-beam both to ionize the medium and to maintain the stability of the discharge. The sustainer discharge ionizes the xenon atoms again from the metastable (6s) state. In this way the system works as a four-level system with the metastable state as the ground state in the excitation scheme. The e-beam excitation from the atomic ground state assures sufficient replenishment for metastable atoms that are quenched to the ground state.In the present studies we investigated the optimum conditions with respect to efficiency and laser output as a function of experimental parameters such as gas pressure and current densities of e-beam and sustainer.

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Excitation mechanisms of the electron-beam-pumped atomic xenon (5d→6p) laser in Ar/Xe mixtures

Cited by 95 publications

References 36 publications

Continuous wave near-infrared atomic Xe laser excited by a radio frequency discharge in a slab geometry

Continuous wave near-infrared atomic Xe laser excited by a radio frequency discharge in a slab geometry

Theoretical feasibility study of new high-efficiency continuous-wave lasers operating at electron transitions in the spectral regions from near ir to uv on the basis of unconventional mechanisms of forming the active gaseous media

Intrinsic efficiency and critical power deposition in the e-beam sustained Ar:Xe Laser

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