DARPA-NRL laser program annual technical report to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The e-beam pumped XeCl laser has been investigated experimentally at pump current densities up to 15A/Sq cm. The results have been compared with NRL's XeCl laser kinetics code, and satisfactory agreement was found. To obtain a better understanding of the neutral formation channel of XeCl*, the Xe(3P2) + HCl (v=1) reaction has been studied and a lower bound on the formation rate constant of 2 x 10 to the -10th power cc/sec was deduced. To assess the potential of the Pb vapor Raman converter for repulsed operation, measurements of collisional quenching of Pb(3P2) and Pb(3P1) by ground state atoms were carried out, which yielded rate constants of 3.2 x 10 to the -13th power cc/sec and 2.0 x 10 to the -13th power respectively.