Efficient long-pulse operation of a capacitor-transfer-type XeCl laser with automatic UV preionization scheme and its line-narrowing.

Abstract

Efficient long-pulse operation of a capacitor-transfer-type XeCI laser with automatic UV preionization has been demonstrated by using a pulse forming network (PFN) in a secondary capacitor circuit. Long-pulse operation with a pulse width of 80 ns full width at half maximum was achieved with an overall efficiency of 2.0% and specific energy of 1.6 Jl-1 atm-1. We have also achieved spectral narrowing to a 0.0015 A linewidth with an output energy of 400 μJ and with diffraction limited beam divergence using a grating and etalon combination.