Comparative study of low‐pressure rare‐gas fluoride/chloride lasers excited by a short‐pulse electron beam

Output characteristics of the short‐pulse electron‐beam excited ArF (193 nm), KrF (248 nm), XeF (351 nm), KrCl (222 nm), and XeCl (308 nm) lasers were experimentally investigated at the same time on the same device for various mixtures all pumped at a high excitation rate of 2.3 MW/cm3. The optimum pressure of rare gas forming its rare‐gas halide excimer increased for the sequence of ArF, KrCl, KrF, XeCl, and XeF, indicating that rare‐gas halides were more quenched by the heavier rare gases, such as Xe, even at near‐atmospheric pressures. At nearly atmospheric pressures the Ar‐buffered mixtures gave higher laser energy than Ne‐buffered mixtures except for the XeF laser. Through a series of measurements, the ArF laser showed the best result on the output energy of 96 J (5 J/l ) with an intrinsic efficiency of 3.4%.