Abstract

Since the advent of CO₂ TEA lasers,¹ high-efficiency TE lasers have made important progress with respect to energy, repetition rate, and even wavelength with excimer lasers² emitting in the UV. One important problem with the laser is to avoid arc formation in the discharge. This can be done by é-beams but using fragile toils that cannot work at high repetition rates. It can also be done by UV photoionization through spark boards associated with a fast discharge, but that requires reliably switching very high peak intensities at high voltages with a spark gap or a Thyratron.

© 1982 Optical Society of America