High-Power XeCl Excimer Laser by Discharge Pumping

A high-power XeCl excimer laser is described. The structure is based on a Mylar sheet capacitor attached to a transverse discharge tube. Forty small gaps for UV preionization are located above the primary electrodes. A common triggered spark gap is used to control the preionization and main discharges which occur 50-100 nsec apart. An external flat dielectric mirror and a quartz output coupling window of the laser tube make up the optical cavity. Reflection loss is avoided by another quartz window. It is noted that the XeCl excimer laser has applications in laser-radar systems used for making observations of the stratospheric ozone layer.