High pressure electric discharge model applied to the halogen depletion instability development in a XeCl phototriggered laser

Abstract

Theoretical studies of a phototriggered XeCl excimer laser have been performed through the development of a zero-dimensional model and used for conditions close to experiment for about 50–100 ns laser pulse duration with electron power deposition in the MW/cm3 range and inside a 300 cm3 chamber. The well-known parallel resistor network model is used. The plasma generated by the impulse discharge is represented by one or more resistance in parallel, whose conductivity is proportional to the electron density. Time variation of the electron density is obtained by integrating the transport equations coupled to the heavy species kinetic and the external circuit. This study provides the time variation of the discharge characteristics as well as the influence of the gas composition on these characteristics. The results have been discussed and analyzed. Calculated discharge current and voltage are also compared with experimental results. Finally, the use of the present model allows a good comprehension of the halogen depletion phenomena, which is the principal cause of laser ending and allows a simple study of the evolution of a large-scale heterogeneity in preionization density and its effect on electrical and chemical plasma properties.

Theoretical study of the pre-ionized XeCl laser

“…In this section, we present some general results for the case of a uniform plasma. The scheme of the discharge model and external circuit are also shown in [6,7].…”

“…The solution of the KE leads to the determination of the electron density also required for the resistance calculation. The set of reactions and their rate coefficients used in the present calculations of the characteristics of the Ne-Xe-HCl mixture for laser discharge are reported in our previous works [6,7].…”

“…Laser output energies of greater than 10 J were obtained in largeaperture systems using this discharge scheme [4,5]. The present work is, therefore, a logical extension of our previous works [6,7]. Here, we focus on the computation of the electron reaction rate coefficients, breakdown delay time and impulse duration, NeXe + species concentration, and discharge current.…”

Electrical Approach of Homogenous High Pressure Ne/Xe/HCl Dielectric Barrier Discharge for XeCl (308 nm) Lamp

“…For the kinetic scheme, we use a Ne/Xe/HCl mixture with a chemistry mechanism that is basically the same as in Refs. [34,42]. This kinetic scheme is based on a full set of processes regrouped in 31 reactions involving 16 atomic, molecular, and photonic species, i.e., Ne, Xe, Xe * , NeXe ?…”

Xe–Ne–HCl excimer lamp excited by a phototriggered discharge

“…The solution of the system of kinetic equations is based on a set of reactions [13,15]: for the electron process, e + Xe ⇐⇒ e + Xe * ,…”