Abstract

For many modem laser applications such as lidar the excimer laser is the almost ideal light source because it produces short, moderate to high power ultraviolet laser pulses. Nevertheless, only little is known or published on the propagation of such pulses through the atmosphere^[1]. Thus, we investigated the refractive index of relevant atmospheric gases interferometrically. For this purpose we constructed an interferometer of the Mach-Zehnder type, consisting of two identical 2.5 m long stainless- steel tubes serving as measurement and reference gas cells, and a Lambda-Physik LPX 105 excimer laser as the light source. Our laser produces pulses of about 20 ns duration with energies up to 200 mj. By simply changing the laser gas mixture, we are capable to generate pulses of different wavelengths in the ultraviolet spectrum range of 193 nm to 351 nm.

© 1992 IQEC