Excimer Lasers
Abstract
The general goals of this program are to identify the required operating conditions for achieving practical net laser gain for an alkali-rare gas laser transition for optical pumping, avalanche discharge pumping and ultraviolet-sustainer discharge pumping, and to demonstrate net laser gain in the laboratory with one of the three pumping techniques. A versatile computer code which contains all relevant gas-kinetic processes, optical pumping processes, and electronic plasma processes has been developed and computes small-signal gain and absorption coefficients versus wavelength due to both alkali-rare gas molecules and alkali dimer molecules. The code is currently operational and is being used at present to guide the discharge and optical pumping experimental studies of the potassium-xenon system. Optical absorption measurements on the K-Xe system have been carried out clearly showing the contribution from both ground state K-Xe molecules and K2 molecules, with a wavelength profile in agreement with that predicted by the model. Fluorescence measurements on the discharge experiment have also been carried out showing both the excimer and dimer states in emission. Attempts are being made to both measure the gain directly using a GaAs probe laser and to achieve laser oscillation on the flashlamp-pumped K-Xe system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA011925
Entities
People
- A. J. Palmer
Organizations
- HRL Laboratories