Kinetically tailored properties of electron-beam excited XeF(C → A) and XeF(B → X) laser media using an Ar-Kr buffer mixture

Use of a two-component buffer gas comprised of Ar and Kr results in electron-beam excited XeF( ) laser pulse energy and intrinsic efficiency values comparable to those of UV rare gas-halide lasers. Herein we report measurements of transient absorption confirming that the primary effect of a buffer comprised of Ar and Kr is a significantly lower level of ionized and excited species that absorb in the blue-green spectral region. Spectral analysis of a variety of mixtures shows that the Ar-Kr buffer also benefits XeF( ) laser performance due to an increase in gain in the 400-450 nm region caused by the presence of the Kr2F excimer. In addition, a large increase in absorption at ∼ 351 nm, also due to Kr2F, suppresses oscillation on the competitive XeF( ) transition and, for certain conditions, makes efficient simultaneous oscillation of the XeF( ) and XeF( ) laser transitions possible.