Effect of the Electrode Radii on the Pump Discharge width and KrF Laser Radiation

The effect of the electrode shapes on the pump discharge width and the energy of radiation of the KrF laser with pulse duration of 30 ns is investigated by the method of computer modeling. The pump and laser power density distributions across the discharge cross section are obtained as functions of the electrode curvature radii. It is shown that an optimum is observed in the dependence of the laser radiation energy on the electrode radius given that the excitation parameters and the mixture composition remain unchanged. The optimum is reached with the electrodes for which the maximum excitation power density in the discharge does not exceed 8 MV/cm3.