Small Scale Discharge Studies
Abstract
In this article the rare gas fluoride lasers are discussed in detail. There is a significant interest in these lasers because they are the most efficient visible/UV lasers to date. The dominant formation kinetics of KrF* and XeF* in both discharges and e-beam pumped lasers are presented. Because of the ionic upper level the formation processes are rapid and conditions can be chosen such that the branching ratio into the KrF* and XeF* levels from both the ionic and metastable levels are unity. In e-beam pumping, a guide magnetic field enables the deposition of 70% of the beam energy into the optical volume. If two e-beams can be used > 90% of the fast electron energy can be deposited into the optical volume. Discharge pumping has the potential of being more efficient than e-beam however, key technical issues of discharge stability, and metastable production efficiency have to be addressed. Stabilization of the discharge appears possible if an external source of ionization is used. The quenching of the rare gas fluorides by two or three body processes have been carefully measured and analyzed. The three body quenching of KrF* leads to the eventual formation of the excited triatomic Kr2F* which radiates in a broad-band centered at 410 mm. We have also determined that ionic and excited state absorption in the active media are large enough to impact the extraction efficiency of these lasers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA049551
Entities
People
- J. A. Mangano
- J. C. Hsia
- J. H. Jacob
- M. Rokni