Abstract
The influence of F2 dissociation and the accompanying increase in fractional ionization is examined for conditions typical of electron‐beam‐sustained KrF* lasers. It is found that for electron‐density–F2‐density ratios greater than about 10−3, rare‐gas metastable loss due to electron excitation of higher levels begins to compete significantly with metastable‐F2 reactions, thereby leading to a substantial reduction in rare gas–halide production efficiency.