Investigation of XeF as a high-repetition-rate pump laser. Final report

Technical Report · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1979

OSTI ID:6736662

The goals of the present contract were to study discharge/uv-preionization geometries compatible with a flowing system, to investigate more efficient uv preionization by separating the uv source from the gas discharge, and to try to identify the mechanism leading to gas degradation by making gain and uv-absorption measurements as a function of number of pulses on a static gas fill. Two discharge/uv-preionization geometries compatible with a flowing system were investigated. One involved two solid electrodes with preionization from one or both sides and the other utilized preionization from behind a screen electrode. The highest laser energy and the largest discharge volume were obtained with the screen cathode configuration. Details of these experiments and of parametric studies aimed at maximizing the extracted laser energy and efficiency are described. The efforts to improve the preionization efficiency by separating the uv source from the gas discharge are described. None of the alternate gases tried gave any significant improvement in performance. An investigation of the decay in both KrF and XeF laser output energies for multiple pulses on a single gas fill indicated that the uv sparks alone were responsible for about half of the observed degradation. Gain and absorption measurements for the XeF laser as a function of number of pulses on a single gas fill suggest that the degradation is due to formation of an impurity molecule which quenches the upper laser level or interferes in its formation and not to production of an absorbing species. Because of the similarity between the XeF and KrF laser systems and because higher output energies can be obtained from the KrF laser, a parallel investigation was carried out for the KrF laser and is described. (WHK)

• Research Organization: Mathematical Sciences Northwest, Inc., Bellevue, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-77ET33047
• OSTI ID: 6736662
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/33047-1; MSNWP-1079; ON: DE82022219
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
GAS LASERS
PERFORMANCE
ELECTRICAL PUMPING
ELECTRODES
GAIN
IONIZATION
KRYPTON FLUORIDES
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
XENON FLUORIDES
AMPLIFICATION
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
KRYPTON COMPOUNDS
LASERS
PUMPING
RARE GAS COMPOUNDS
XENON COMPOUNDS
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)