Amplification and generation of radiation at the 42Γ → 1,22Γ transition of the Kr2F molecule in an electron-beam-pumped wide-aperture laser

Abstract

The radiation amplification and oscillation are obtained in an electron-beam-pumped Berdysh laser with an active volume of 10 L in the visible range from 430 to 470 nm at the broadband 42Γ → 1,22Γ transition in the triatomic Kr2F molecule of interest for amplification of ultrashort laser pulses. It is shown that, along with absorption of laser radiation in the active medium, the amplification dynamics is considerably determined by short-lived absorption induced in the amplifier windows by bremsstrahlung X-rays. For the specific pump power 0.6 — 0.7 MW cm-3, the gain, corrected for nonstationary absorption, was ∼10-3 cm-1. A scheme of a Kr2F amplifier is proposed for amplification of ultrashort pulses up to multiterawatt peak powers in the active volume ∼10 L.