Abstract

Powerful F₂ lasers in vacuum ultraviolet spectrum region have extensive applications particularly to photochemical processes^[1] and photolithography.^[2] However, F₂ lasers, when operating at high excitation rate (20 ~ 60MW/cm³)^[3] to achieve faster build-up of the gain and higher extraction efficiency, exhibit extremely high small-signal gain (40%/cm for 6atm mixture at 26MW/cm³). Thus, the output of a free running oscillator of such high gain lasers tends to be dominated by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), which is inadequate for applications requiring high brightness.

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