A preionized nitrogen laser as a diagnostic light source for fast pulsed experiments

The design of an aluminum foil-mylar preionized TEA nitrogen laser is described. The laser produces a high quality homogeneous beam that meets the stringent requirements of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The applicability of the optical diagnostic system is demonstrated for a rapidly changing plasma in the plasma focus discharge. The combination of the thin aluminum foils and mylar sheets provides an extremely simple but effective preionization scheme. This combined with properly shaped electrodes leads to the production of short-duration, high-energy, and good-quality laser pulses from transverse discharges at atmospheric pressure