Low-Energy Pumping of a 108.9-nm Xenon Auger Laser

摘要

We report extensive measurements of gain in the Xe III system initially obversed by Kapteyn et al. The dependence of this gain on pressure, pumping-pulse length, and pump energy is presented. By optimizing these parameters we have achieved a gain of exp(3.2) by using only 0.56 J of 1064-nm energy on target, representing an efficiency improvement of nearly 100. Total gains as high as exp (6.6) have been measured when using higher energies. Our data indicate that effective laser-produced plasmas can be created with applied power densities as low as 5 x 10 to the 10th power w/sq cm.