Enhancement of the output energy and service life of a compact gas-discharge pulse-periodic excimer XeCl laser

An investigation was made of some physicochemical ways of increasing the output radiation energy and the service life of a compact gas-discharge pulse-periodic excimer XeCl laser. The energy and the service life were enhanced by a change of the composition and of the temperature regime in working mixtures. For example, when boron chloride (BCl3) was used as the halogen carrier, the energy of the output pulses increased by 20% and the service life was improved by 50%, compared with the traditionally used hydrogen chloride (HCl). Cooling of the working mixture of an XeCl laser approximately doubled the output energy and increased the service life to ~106 pulses. The reasons for the improvement in the characteristics were the large rate constants of the formation of negative Cl- ions in mixtures with BCl3, fast accumulation of nonvolatile products in reactions of BCl3 with impurities, and precipitation of aerosols on a heat exchanger in the gas channel.