A study of an electron-beam excited atomic xenon laser at high energy loading

Operation of an electron-beam excited atomic xenon laser was investigated at pump rates between 40 W/cm³ and 1 kW/cm³ with pump times of 1 ms. Effects of cavity loss, gas mixture, and pump rate on laser performance were studied under selected conditions. The variation in laser power in 99.5% argon and 0.5% xenon selectively lasing at 1.73 or 2.6 μm was investigated as a function of pump power. It was found that the laser pulsewidth was shorter than the pump pulse and increased as the pump rate decreased, consistent with a temperature-induced effect. Lasing with broadband optics was investigated as the xenon concentration was varied and as helium or neon was combined with argon-xenon mixtures. Strong lasing was observed for xenon concentrations up to 20%. Addition of helium resulted in a slight increase in laser pulsewidth and caused lasing at 2.03 μm to increase at the expense of lasing at 1.73 and 2.6 μm