Discharge-Pumped Rare Gas Excimer Lasers in the VUV Region.

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We have newly designed and built a high pressure laser tube, and have extensively studied the excitation mechanism of rare gas excimers produced by electrical discharge and the mixing process of the singlet and triplet states. The obtained results are as follows: (1) The continuum of the argon excimer spreads over a spectral range from 90nm to 146nm, which is wider than that produced by electron beam. (2) The continuum has the peak at 126nm, and the peak intensity increases as a function of 1. 2 powers of the argon pressure. (3) In the pressure range below 1 atm, the energy transfer from the triplet state to the singlet one is caused by electron collision process. (4) Above 1 atm, a two body collision process between the excimer and the atom in the ground state becomes important. (5) The electron density in the discharge plasma is estimated to be less than 1010cm-3, which is much lower than the value of 1013cm-3 in the electron beam produced plasma.We have also stdied the corona discharge-type preionization, and found that it is not strong enough to generate homogeneous discharge between the clectrodes. We have also found that SiC chemical vapor deposition film and Mo single crystal are most suitable materials for the cavity mirrors.