A 650 J e-beam-pumped atomic xenon laser

The atomic xenon laser has been scaled from the 80-J per pulse output-energy level reported by N.G. Basov et al. (1986) to 650 J using a large two-sided e-beam-pumped device. The extraction volume dimensions were 0.5 m×0.65×3 m. The gas was pumped at a temporally and spatially averaged rate of 70 kW/cm³, and the spatially averaged specific input energy was 115 J/L. Output-energy measurements were made with a full-aperture calorimeter, and the temporal pulse shape of the 1.73-μm laser radiation was recorded with a spectrally filtered germanium photodiode. The device was operated with argon-xenon gas mixtures at pressures ranging from 20 to 40 psia at a temperature of 23°C, and the xenon mole fraction was empirically optimized. The maximum output energy of 650 J was obtained at an intrinsic efficiency (output energy divided by energy deposited to gas) of 0.57%. A higher efficiency of 0.85% was achieved by using a shorter e-beam pulse, at a reduced laser output energy of 495 J. A possible explanation for the observed laser pulse shape is given