Estimation of the lasing threshold for excimer media under nuclear pumping

An experimental method developed to estimate the lasing thresholds of nucle ar-pumped excimer lasers is based on comparing the luminescence characteris tics of the excimer media with the active media of a known nuclear-pumped l aser under their excitation by alpha -particles from Pu-239 or Cf-252 fissi on fragments. For a Ar : Xe : CCl4 gas mixture with a component ratio of 76 0 : 7 : 0.7 Torr, the upper bound of the threshold density of the thermal n eutron flux for a nuclear pumped XeCl* excimer laser (lambda = 308 nm, B-X- transition of XeCl*) is determined: 1.3 x 10(16) thermal neutrons/(cm(2) s) . This corresponds to a specific energy deposition into the gas of 500-1000 W/cm(3).