Beam quality of self-starting SBS resonators for excimer lasers

The generation of near Gaussian beams with small beam propagation factors M2 is investigated for excimer laser applications requiring small focal spots. A considerable transverse beam quality improvement can be achieved not only with small internal apertures but also be operating the excimer laser with a phase-conjugating SBS-mirror. No additional start resonator was used. SBS-cells filled with a liquid mixture of dimethylbutane/n-pentane exhibit high optical breakdown intensities.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.