Abstract
Gain characteristics of a photolytically driven XeF(C–A) laser amplifier are studied experimentally in the unsaturated amplification regime. The gaseous active medium is optically pumped by vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation from two large-area multichannel surface discharges initiated along opposite walls of the amplifier chamber. A total gain factor of 102 is obtained for the ultrashort optical pulses under multipass amplification in the active volume of 40 × 18 × 4 cm3 dimensions with a spatially homogeneous gain distribution. Spectral measurements reveal a good conservation of the seed pulse spectrum. Small-signal gain reaching 2×10-3 cm-1 is observed for the blue-green seed pulses of 150 fs duration, as well as for the continuous seed radiation at 488 nm. The obtained gain values, being compared with the gain calculated for the measured pumping radiation power, indicate that the quantum yield of the XeF(B) formation as a result of the XeF2 photodissociation is high and approaches unity within the spectral band of the XeF2 VUV photodissociation continuum.
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