Abstract

The e-beam excited atomic xenon laser operates in the near IR on transitions ranging from 1.73 to 3.65 μm. The laser is operated in gas mixtures consisting of less than a few percent of xenon in rare gas buffers at pressures of 0.5-10 atm. The highest efficiencies have been obtained in Ar-Xe mixtures. We report on an investigation of short pulse high power and low power high energy loading of the atomic xenon laser. Results from a model for the Xe laser¹ are compared to experiments to derive scaling laws for these pumping schemes. Experiments on high power deposition (1-10 MW/cm³ atm) pumping of Ar-Xe mixtures were performed using a short pulse (30-ns) coaxial electron beam.² High energy deposition (<1 kJ/liter atm) was obtained using a long pulse (1-ms) λ type e-beam source at power depositions of <1 kW / cm³ atm.^3,4

© 1990 Optical Society of America