Laser and discharge parameters in mixtures of rare gases with halogens driven by a pre-pulse-sustainer circuit technique are studied. Inductive energy storage with semiconductor opening switch was used for the high-voltage pre-pulse formation. It was shown that the pre-pulse with a high amplitude and short rise-time along with sharp increase of discharge current and uniform UV- and x-ray preionization allow to form long-lived stable discharge in halogen containing gas mixtures. Improvement of both pulse duration and output energy was achieved for XeCl-, XeF-, KrCl- and KrF excimer lasers. Maximal laser output was as high as 1 J at efficiency up to 4%. Increase of the radiation power and laser pulse duration was achieved in N₂-NF₃ (SF₆) and He-F₂ (NF₃) gas mixtures, as well.

Date Published: 25 July 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6735, International Conference on Lasers, Applications, and Technologies 2007: High-Power Lasers and Applications, 67350C (25 July 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.753211

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6735:
International Conference on Lasers, Applications, and Technologies 2007: High-Power Lasers and Applications
Vladislav Panchenko; Vladimir Golubev; Andrey Ionin; Alexander Chumakov, Editor(s)