Vol. 14, issue 11, article # 2

Abstract:

The influence of gas temperature on the output power and pulse shape of the 1.73 (5d[3/2]₁-6p[5/2]₂) and 2.03 mkm (5d[3/2]₁-6p[3/2]₂) Xe I laser was studied. The laser gases were mixtures of a 0.3 and a 0.5% xenon concentration in 330 mbar argon buffer gases. In one experiment, 100 mbar helium was added. The laser was pumped using a pulsed 100 MeV ³²S⁹⁺ ion beam. Beam pulses were 30 and 50 mks-long of constant intensity and had rise and fall times of less than 100 ns. Temperature dependence of the laser output was measured. A titanium gas purifier was used to avoid the influence of impurities on the measurement. Water vapor density, in particular, was kept below 10¹³ cm^-3. A decrease of laser output power with increasing temperature was observed. Optical cavity losses were minimized in order to perform experiments over a wide range of gas temperatures (303 ~ 663 K) without going below laser threshold. Gas density was kept constant during the measurement. Adding helium to the laser gas mixture improved laser performance. Extreme afterglow lasing, reaching more than 20% of the entire energy in the 50 mks laser output and lasting for more than 20 mks, was observed in the temperature range between 392 and 553 K at a gas density of 6.7 ~ 5.0 10¹⁸ cm^-3. Using a broadband optical cavity and a gas mixture of 300 mbar argon gas with 1% xenon admixture, pumped by 20 mks beam pulses, competition between the laser lines at 1.73 and 2.03 mkm with a complex time structure was observed.