Temporal extension of stable glow discharges in fluorine-based excimer laser gas mixtures by the addition of xenon

The effect of addition of xenon on the long term homogeneity of discharges in F₂and ArF excimer laser gas mixtures was investigated in a small-volume discharge chamber. The gas mixture in the discharge chamber was preionized by X-rays. A special electrical excitation circuit containing a pulse forming line provided a long, square-shaped current pumping pulse of a predetermined duration to the discharge electrodes. The initiation and the development of the discharge was monitored via its fluorescence signal with an intensified CCD camera. We found that adding Xe up to partial pressures of 0.53 mbar extended the homogeneous phase of the discharge from 80 ns to approximately 200 ns in He/F₂as well as in He/Ar/F₂and Ne/Ar/F₂excimer laser gas mixtures. Monitoring of the ArF and XeF spontaneous emission signals showed that the formation of ArF excimers remained unaffected by the addition of xenon (up to 1.3 mbar) to the laser gas mixture.     

A computer model of a transverse discharge cw CO laser

A kinetic model has been developed for the investigation of the novel performance of a CO laser, on which efficient extraction of laser power was obtained by exciting a subsonic gas mixture of CO/N₂/He/O₂ through transverse dc discharge. Kinetic equations for direct excitation by electron impact, V-V and V-R/T energy transfer, and stimulated emission are coupled with a semi-one-dimensional flow model. Careful consideration is devoted especially to the V-V transfer process of CO–N₂ and N₂–N₂. The laser power was calculated by a constant gain method. The laser output performance, examined as a function of gas mixture ratio, temperature, flow velocity, and discharge current, was in good agreement with the experiment.     

Construction of a photon drag detector for evaluating the performance of a CO2 laser amplifier

In this article, the construction of P-type germanium (Ge) photon drag detector which is used to characterize the gain and output powers of a 10 W CO₂ laser and a CO₂ laser amplifier is described. Gain and laser amplifier output power versus laser input power measurements collected at 4.7 mbar and 12.0 mbar amplifier tube pressures are discussed. Moreover, measurements relating the CO₂ laser output power to the laser tube discharge current are provided at 6.9 mbar and 7.3 mbar tube pressures.     

基于遗传算法的CO2激光器三气体组份优化

应用遗传算法和数值求解CO₂激光动力学方程,以输出激光功率为目标函数,优化了典型封离型CO₂激光器三种主要工作气体(CO₂、N₂、He)的气体压强.对1.2m长谐振腔,在放电电压15kV条件下,三种气体的优化压强分别为PCO₂=1.15×133.3Pa、PN₂=7.36×133.3Pa、PH₂=13.33×133.3Pa.优化后激光功率可提高0.96倍.     

Detection of oxygen atoms in a high pressure surfatron microwave discharge via two-photon four-wave mixing

3 P_J) oxygen atoms are detected in a high pressure surface wave discharge driven at 2.45 GHz via two-photon resonant degenerate four-wave mixing spectroscopy (TP-DFWM) in the forward folded BOX configuration. The nonlinear optical signal provides a direct measure of the relative oxygen atom concentration with high spatial resolution inside the discharge up to pressures of 1 bar and without distortions due to linear absorption or saturation effects. The axial distribution of oxygen atom concentration is observed to depend sensitively on total pressure and gas flux. For total gas pressures up to 600 mbar both in case of a mixture of 10% O₂/He and 10% O₂/Ar the concentration of oxygen atoms increases linearly with pressure. At higher pressures an increase with larger slope is observed for 10% O₂/Ar, while the concentration remains constant for 10% O₂/He. This is interpreted by an increase of the three-body recombination rate in O₂/He mixtures. Received: 26 July 1996/Revised version: 15 November 1996     

Numerical solution of Boltzmann tranport equation for TEA CO2 laser having nitrogen-lean gas mixtures to predict laser characteristics and gas lifetime

Selective laser isotope separation by TEA CO₂ laser often needs short tail-free pulses. Using laser mixtures having very little nitrogen almost tail free laser pulses can be generated. The laser pulse characteristics and its gas lifetime is an important issue for long-term laser operation. Boltzmann transport equation is therefore solved numerically for TEA CO₂ laser gas mixtures having very little nitrogen to predict electron energy distribution function (EEDF). The distribution function is used to calculate various excitation and dissociation rate of CO₂ to predict laser pulse characteristics and laser gas lifetime, respectively.Laser rate equations have been solved with the calculated excitation rates for numerically evaluated discharge current and voltage profiles to calculate laser pulse shape. The calculated laser pulse shape and duration are in good agreement with the measured laser characteristics. The gas lifetime is estimated by integrating the equation governing the dissociation of CO₂. An experimental study of gas lifetime was carried out using quadrapole mass analyzer for such mixtures to estimate the O₂ being produced due to dissociation of CO₂ in the pulse discharge. The theoretically calculated O₂ concentration in the laser gas mixture matches with experimentally observed value. In the present TEA CO₂ laser system, for stable discharge the O₂ concentration should be below 0.2%.     

Gain and absorption of an X-ray pre-ionized XeCl discharge laser at high gas pressures

An experimental study was undertaken to investigate the characteristics of XeCl discharge lasers at high gas pressures ( 15 atm). From a comparison of the fluorescence measurements with the net small signal gain coefficients, it was concluded that absorption is the main cause of the catastrophic drop in laser output power in higher pressures. Accounting for such molecular absorbers as Xe⁺ ₂, Xe^* ₂, and Xe₂Cl^*, the absorption coefficient,K, was calculated using a simple steady-state analysis and the net gain coefficients deduced from the calculated absorptions came to within an order of magnitude of the measured values.     

Parametric study of Xe2 * dimer in high-pressure electrical discharges

Optical and electrical properties of a high-pressure discharge of pure xenon and xenon-helium and xenon-neon mixtures are studied experimentally. Uniform discharge at total gas pressure as high as 10 atm is achieved in xenon-lean mixtures. Vacuum ultraviolet emissions due to the first and second continua of Xe₂ ^* are examined spectroscopically. The vibrational relaxation rate constant k_He of Xe₂ ^* by helium is determined to be of the order of 10^-11 cm³ s^-1 from spectroscopic data. Laser oscillation for the 172-nm band was attempted without success. Discharge instability at high gas pressures is considered to the cause of the unsuccessful laser experiments. Some issues related to discharge instability in a high-pressure rare-gas discharge are discussed. Received: 1 October 2001 / Revised version: 11 June 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +852-2603/5204, E-mail: dlo@phy.mhk.edu.hk     

Dynamics and correlated performance of a photo-triggered discharge-pumped HF laser using SF6 with hydrogen or ethane

3 , has been performed in Ne/SF₆/H₂ and Ne/SF₆/C₂H₆ mixtures. Parameters involved have been the storage line capacitance and the circuit inductance, the capacitors charging voltage, the RH-molecule type and partial pressure, and the X-ray dose for the preionization. High laser performance has been achieved with C₂H₆: an output energy up to 3 J corresponding to a specific energy of 9.6 J/l at an efficiency of 4.7%, which strengthens the advantage of the photo-triggering technique to energize high-power HF lasers. However the optimum performance achieved with H₂, 5.75 J/l and 3.5%, are lower. It is shown, through a time-resolved study of the electrical discharge and spatial dynamics correlated to laser power and energy measurements, that discharge instabilities are responsible for the poor laser performance of the mixture with H₂. These instabilities, which lead to arc development, are characteristics of the discharge in Ne/SF₆. It is demonstrated for the first time that addition of a heavy hydrocarbon, such as C₂H₆, to that mixture induces the discharge stabilization so that the laser emission arises in a homogeneous active medium. This effect allows us to achieve better laser performance than with H₂. Received: 17 March 1998/Revised version: 13 July 1998     

Pulsed inductive discharge CO2 laser

A pulsed inductive discharge CO₂ laser with a wavelength of 10.6 μm has been created for the first time. The excitation system of a cylindrical pulsed inductive discharge (pulsed inductively coupled plasma) in the gas mixture of CO₂:N₂:He was developed. The temporal and energy parameters of the laser radiation were investigated. The maximum inductive discharge CO₂ laser radiation energy of 104 mJ was achieved. An average power of 3.2 W was obtained at laser generation energy of 65 mJ and pulse repetition rate of 50 Hz. In the cross-section, the laser radiation had the ring shape with an external diameter of 34 mm and thickness of 4-5 mm. The measured divergence of laser radiation was 12 mrad.     

Effect of focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge properties

We studied the effect of the laser beam focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge (COD) properties. We used a full two-dimensional radiative gas-dynamic model for the COD, maintained by a vertical CO₂ laser beam in free air atmosphere, in the Earth's gravitational field. The model takes into account all of the factors that are of importance in laser-sustained plasma processes, and uses realistic quasi optics to describe the laser radiation propagation. Results are presented for the optical discharge parameters as functions of applied laser power and degree (f-number) to which the laser beam is focused.     

Detailed vibrational population distributions in a CO2 laser discharge as measured with a tunable diode laser

A tunable diode laser (TDL) operating in the 2150–2350 cm^–1 wavenumber region is used to probe a conventional cw CO₂ laser discharge. Absorption lines in more than 25 different vibrational bands are observed, enabling us to determine absolute vibrational populations inall levels of concern to the dynamics of the 10 m CO₂ laser. Levels in thev ₃ mode of CO₂ as high as 00°9 are monitored, and it is found that anharmonic effects play a significant role in the populations of such levels. Thev ₁ andv ₂ mode populations are also investigated in detail, and it is found that these modes are strongly coupled and maintain a common vibrational temperature under all discharge conditions. The use of a TDL is shown to be a powerful technique for investigating the dynamics of infrared molecular lasers.This work was supported in part by the National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canada     

Effect of helium/argon gas ratio in a He-Ar-Cu<Superscript>+</Superscript> IR hollow-cathode discharge laser: modeling study and comparison with experiments

The He-Ar-Cu⁺ IR laser operates in a hollow-cathode discharge, typically in a mixture of helium with a few-% Ar. The population inversion of the Cu⁺ ion levels, responsible for laser action, is attributed to asymmetric charge transfer between He⁺ ions and sputtered Cu atoms. The Ar gas is added to promote sputtering of the Cu cathode. In this paper, a hybrid modeling network consisting of several different models for the various plasma species present in a He-Ar-Cu hollow-cathode discharge is applied to investigate the effect of Ar concentration in the gas mixture on the discharge behavior, and to find the optimum He/Ar gas ratio for laser operation. It is found that the densities of electrons, Ar⁺ ions, Ar_m ^* metastable atoms, sputtered Cu atoms and Cu⁺ ions increase upon the addition of more Ar gas, whereas the densities of He⁺ ions, He₂ ⁺ ions and He_m ^* metastable atoms drop considerably. The product of the calculated Cu atom and He⁺ ion densities, which determines the production rate of the upper laser levels, and hence probably also the laser output power, is found to reach a maximum around 1–5 % Ar addition. This calculation result is compared to experimental measurements, and reasonable agreement has been reached. Received: 14 October 2002 / Revised version: 28 November 2002 / Published online: 19 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +32-3/820-23-76, E-mail: annemie.bogaerts@ua.ac.be     

CO2 laser-induced plasma CVD synthesis of diamond

2 laser maintenance of a stationary optical discharge in a gas stream, exhausting over a substrate into the air (laser plasmatron). Nano- and polycrystalline-diamond films were deposited on tungsten substrates from atmospheric-pressure Xe(Ar):H₂:CH₄ gas mixtures at flow rates of 2 ?/min. A 2.5-kW CO₂ laser focused beam produced plasma. The deposition area was about 1 cm² and growth rates were up to 30–50 μm/h. Peculiarities and advantages of laser plasmatrons are discussed. Received: 15 January 1998/Accepted: 16 January 1998     

Anomalous behavior of optogalvanic signal in a miniature neon discharge lamp

A strong optogalvanic effect has been observed in a negative glow of a miniature neon discharge lamp using tunable pulse dye laser pumped by a copper vapor laser. A comparative study on temporal evolution of optogalvanic signal in a positive and negative dynamic resistance region of the discharge is described. Dye laser beam was tuned to various neon transitions 1s_i → 2p_j (Paschen notations) within 570-617 nm wavelength range. Anomalous behavior of optogalvanic signal was observed at 588.2 nm for (1s₅ → 2p₂) neon transition at low discharge current (<220 μA). This anomalous behavior is the attributes of damped oscillations of optogalvanic signal that correlate with negative dynamic resistance (dV/di < 0) of the discharge. Penning ionization at low discharge current and small energy mismatch is assumed to be the main cause of the negative dynamic resistance. Penning ionization process has been explained by resonantly ionizing energy transfer via collisions between neon buffer gas atoms in the lowest metastable state (1s₅) and electrode sputtered atoms in ground state using their partial energy level diagram.     

Synthesis of Ni-doped InTaO4 nanocrystallites by reactive pulsed laser ablation for application to visible-light-operating photocatalysts

Ni-doped InTaO₄ nanocrystallites were synthesized by a reactive pulsed laser ablation process, aiming at visible-light-operating photocatalysts. The third harmonics beam of a Nd:YAG laser was focused onto a sintered In_0.9Ni_0.1TaO_4−δ target in mixture background gases (O₂ + He). The deposited species were columnar-structured porous films consisting of primary nanocrystallites. The mean diameter of the primary nanocrystallites was 4 nm. Optical absorption characteristics, especially in low absorbance (sub-band) regions, were evaluated by photoacoustic spectroscopy. Absorption in the sub-band region decreased drastically with increasing O₂ partial pressures. It is inferred that oxygen deficiencies are suppressed, because of enough oxygen vapors in the reactive background gases. An absorption band around 420 nm appeared obviously in O₂ partial pressures above 5%, in the Ni-doped InTaO₄ nanocrystallites. The visible region absorption band is presumably attributed to the Ni 3d-eg orbitals. In contrast, pure InTaO₄ nanocrystallites showed a sharp band edge, without the visible absorption band.     

Studies on excimer laser doping of GaAs using sulphur adsorbate as dopant source

Excimer laser doping of GaAs using sulphur adsorbate as a dopant source is demonstrated. Box-like n-type layers of depths of about 100 nm with carrier concentration as high as (23)×10¹⁹ cm^–3 are formed. Passivation of GaAs using a (NH₄)₂S_x solution for 40 min followed by sublimation of the excess sulphur atoms in high vacuum result in an effective dopant for controllable n-type doping. The samples are irradiated using a KrF excimer laser in a N₂ gaseous environment. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements show that sulphur is successfully incorporated in the GaAs. The sheet resistance is controlled by adjusting the laser energy fluence and number of laser pulses. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry with channeling (RBS/C) alignment measurement indicates that lattice damage is undetectable for N₂ gas pressures of 760 Torr.     

Chopped CW laser-induced optogalvanic effect in a neon hollow cathode discharge

A detailed model for the optogalvanic effect in a neon hollow cathode discharge irradiated by a chopped CW dye laser is presented. A rate equation formalism is used to calculate the evolution of the first and second electronic configuration populations coupled by the laser and of the electric charges number density. Processes as ambipolar-like electrons loss, electronic collisional coupling of level populations and electron emission by the cathode due to VUV radiation from the 1s ₂ resonant level are taken into account and further discussed.The transients and steady-state magnitude of the optogalvanic signal are calculated, compared with experimental data and related to population changes. We predict sign changes of the optogalvanic signal when the laser is tuned over transitions originating from the resonant level with respect to transitions involving the metastables states. The optogalvanic signal is shown to be basically determined by the laser-induced variations of the excited-state populations while changes in the electron temperature, due to laser energy transfer by collisions between electrons and excited atoms, play a negligible role.     

Determination of an optimal five-gas combination in a sealed-off CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser

For obtaining the maximal output power, five lasing gas mixtures (CO₂, N₂, He, Xe and H₂) in a sealed-off CO₂ laser are optimized by applying a genetic algorithm and solving CO₂ laser kinetics equations. A comparison of numerical simulations shows that the optimal pressures of CO₂ and N₂ are 1.15 Torr and 7.32 Torr, respectively. Accordingly, the maximum laser power of 124 W is obtained by utilizing the optimal gas combination and an optimized resonator with a length of 1.2 m. Received: 14 August 2002 / Published online: 22 January 2003 The project supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 602098). RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +86-571/8832-0369, E-mail: chengch@mail.hz.zj.cn     

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Neon-Hydrogen Penning Recombination Laser

A theoretical and experimental study of Ne - H₂ Penning Recombination Laser operating on the Nel 585.3 nm line in the negative glow of a helical hollow cathode discharge is presented. A detailed kinetic model of the plasma-chemical reactions determining the inversion population on the Nel (2p₁-1s₂) transition is developed. The time dependent behaviour of the main plasma and laser parameters is numerically calculated. The behaviour of the plasma and laser parameters as a function of the discharge conditions is investigated and compared with the experimental results.