Electronic and kinetic processes in the Cu/CuCl double pulse laser

[摘要] Kinetic and electronic processes in a Cu/CuCl double pulsedlaser were investigated by measuring discharge and laser pulse characteristics,and by computer modeling. There are two time scalesinherent to the operation of the Cu/CuCl laser. The first is duringthe interpulse afterglow (tens to hundreds of microseconds). Thesecond is during the pumping pulse (tens of nanoseconds). It wasfound that the character of the pumping pulse is largely determinedby the initial conditions provided by the interpulse afterglow. Bytailoring the dissociation pulse to be long and low energy, and byconditioning the afterglow, one may select the desired initial conditionsand thereby significantly improve laser performance. With alow energy dissociation pulse, the fraction of metastable copper obtainedfrom a CuCl dissociation is low. By maintaining the afterglow,contributions to the metastable state from ion recombinationsare prevented, and the plasma impedance remains low thereby increasingthe rate of current rise during the pumping pulse. Computer modelsfor the dissociation pulse, afterglow, pumping pulse and laser pulsereproduced experimentally observed behavior of laser pulse energyand power as a function of time delay, pumping pulse characteristics,and buffer gas pressure. The sensitivity of laser pulse propertieson collisional processes (e.g., CuCl reassociation rates)was investigated.

[发布机构] University:California Institute of Technology;Department:Engineering and Applied Science

[关键词] Applied Physics