LASER-BASED ON AN SF6-H-2 MIXTURE PUMPED BY A RADIALLY CONVERGING ELECTRON-BEAM

Experimental and theoretical investigations were made of the excitatio n and emission from a high-power HF laser pumped by a nonchain chemica l reaction initiated by a radially converging electron beam, The distr ibution of the specific radiation energy in the output beam was determ ined and the distribution of the input energy over the laser chamber c ross section was calculated for various gas mixtures. The space-charge field influenced the input energy distribution. The output radiation energy of a mixture of the SF6:H-2 = 8:1 composition was similar to 11 5 J at a pressure of 0.45 bar when the active volume was similar to 30 litres, the efficiency relative to the input energy was similar to 7% -8%, and the distribution of the radiation energy over the output beam cross section was relatively uniform. For the same input energy, beca use of the high density of SF6, a pressure jump in SF6-H-2(D-2) mixtur es resulting from the combined effect of the electron beam injection a nd the chemical reaction was several times less than in active mixture s of exciplex lasers.