Vol. 20, issue 08, article # 11

Abstract:

The influence of the pumping method on output parameters of a wide-aperture electric-discharge XeCl laser is studied. An output of 9.5 J was obtained under excitation by a capacitive-storage stripline pump generator with a preliminary discharge. The XeCl laser parameters were calculated for different pumping modes. It was shown that the use of an inductive energy storage with a semiconductor opening switch and a primary storage in the form of a capacitor increases the breakdown voltage of the laser gap and the discharge current rise rate. The calculated laser output energy and the laser efficiency at low charging voltages of the primary storage can be as high as 9 J and 3.6%, respectively.