Dye Laser Studies of Pulsed High Pressure Gas Discharges.

Design criteria and performance characteristics of a tunable very narrow bandwidth dye laser that is suitable for pumping by a short pulse duration high power N2 laser are reported. The dye laser system is characterized by a relatively short overall length of 15 cm. Bandwidths of from 0.015 to 0.05 nm are obtained along with conversion efficiencies in the neighborhood of 10 percent using a 4 to 5 nsec pulse duration N2 laser pump. Several applications of the pulsed dye laser as a fast time resolved diagnostic for high pressure gas discharges are described. An experimental investigation of the atomic fluorine laser as produced by a fast pulsed discharge in a He-NF3 mixture is described. Total collisional quenching rates of He 2 3S metastables on NF3, BF3, CBrF3, CC1F3, CHF3, CF4, C2F6, CO2, SF6, and N2 are reported. Upper limits for collisional quenching rates of He 2 1S, 2 3P and 2 1P atoms on NF3 are determined.