High power 157 nm F2 laser pumped by intense electron beams using the He/F2 and He/Ne/F2 mixtures

Using the intense electron beam excited mixtures of molecular fluorine and helium, we have developed a joule-level 157-nm F2 laser. Maximum laser energy of 1.84 J with a pulse width of 35 ns (53 MW) and an intrinsic efficiency of 1.4 % was obtained using a 6 atm mixture of He/F2 = 99.88/0.12 (%). It corresponds to 11.5 J of the laser energy extracted from the whole electron beam aperture of 9 cm in diameter. It is found for the first time that the Ne-addition to the normal He/F2 mixture is very useful to decrease the high operating pressure of the mixture. (author)