Use of a discharge over a dielectric surface for preionization in excimer lasers

Abstract

The conditions were determined for producing a highly homogeneous high-current discharge over a plane dielectric surface, to provide a high-power source of ultraviolet radiation creating strong preionization in the main volume discharge. This volume discharge was obtained for apertures of up to 30 cm2 and interelectrode separations of up to 10 cm. It is was found experimentally that in order to achieve a high laser efficiency, the energy supplied to the auxiliary discharge must have a certain optimal value. A laser output energy of 1 J was obtained at a specific output energy of 5.8 J/liter. The overall efficiency, for a laser output of 7 J, was 1.5%.