Electron-beam-excited KrF laser with a pump power density of 1.6 GW·liter–1·atm–1

An experimental investigation was made of an electron-beam-excited KrF laser with a gas mixture at pressures of 1–5 atm. At the optimal pressure of a mixture with the Ar : Kr : F₂ = 300:30:13.3 atm composition, a laser output energy of 8.8 J with a half-height pulse duration of ~70 nsec was obtained from a volume of 0.45 liters. The efficiency was 4.5%. Investigations of the active medium indicated that it should be possible to achieve an efficiency of ~10% and a specific output energy of ~40–50 J/liter, although this would require resonator optics having a high optical strength (>15 MW/cm²).