Abstract

The technology of electrical discharge gas lasers has improved greatly in the last decade. High repetition rates excimer lasers with operating powers of 100-300 W are commercially available now. However results on the XeF (B→X) discharge excimer laser are scarce although e-beam pumping of this laser transition has been studied extensively. This certainly has to do with the increased probability of discharge instabilities in the NF₃ or F₂ doped laser gas mixtures compared to the HCl-doped gas mixtures for the competing XeCl excimer laser under the same pumping conditions. With the use of new and powerful excitation techniques these problems are addressed.

© 1994 IEEE