On the electron-beam pumped KrF laser

Abstract

The paper deals with the complex kinetics of excitation, quenching, and absorption in an electron-beam pumped KrF laser. The effect of the pressure dependence of the ionic recombination rates, the role of the metastables, and the formation of ArKr+ are investigated and compared with our experimental results. From the model the maximum power density together with the optimized densities of argon, krypton, and fluorine are calculated as a function of the beam-current-to-outcoupling ratio. Finally, the pressure dependencies of the individual components near the optimized conditions are investigated.