Investigation of the amplifying properties of a krypton gas discharge plasma

The characteristics of a gas discharge in krypton (at a pressure of several atmospheres), used as a medium for lasers based on excimer transitions in the VUV region, have been calculated. It is shown that, to achieve the threshold values of excimer concentration, a high preionization level and the shape of the applied voltage pulse are important factors. It has been found that the shape of the excimer emission pulse is determined, to a large extent, by stepwise processes with the participation of electrons and by the relaxation time of the electron energy.