Vol. 29, issue 02, article # 4

Abstract:

The results of experimental studies of the gas mixture (laser active medium) effect on the generation energy and overall efficiency of excimer discharge ArF- (193), KrCl- (223), KrF- (248), and XeCl lasers (308 nm) operating on gas mixtures without the use of a buffer gas are presented. The optimal (in terms of maximum radiation energy) ratio of the gas components of the active media of excimer lasers are found, at which the efficient operation is achieved with a sufficiently high output power of the laser radiation.
It is experimentally confirmed that for the rare gas halide discharge pumped excimer lasers the presence of a buffer gas in the active medium is not required for efficient laser operation. For example, in the binary excimer laser gas mixtures containing working rare gas and halogen-containing gas, for pulsed gas-discharge excimer lasers operating on electronic transitions of excimer ArF*, KrCl*, KrF*, and XeCl* molecules pumped by a transverse electric space discharge at reduced pressure a buffer-free gaseous mixture, laser pulse energy of up to 170 mJ and high pulsed laser power of up to 24 MW have been attained for the first time. The maximum total efficiency in an experiment for binary gas mixtures of KrF and XeCl lasers has reached 0.8%.

Keywords:

binary gas mixture, excimer laser, transverse electrical volume discharge, gas mixture without a buffer gas, low operating pressure, laser energy, full efficiency

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