Theoretical evaluation of the rare-gas diluent effects for an electron-beam-excited XeCl laser

The effect of various rare-gas diluents on the operating performance of the e-beam-excited XeCl laser is theoretically analyzed. The analysis of the XeCl* pumping process and the extraction process could solve the dependence of the intrinsic efficiency, small-signal gain, and absorption on the rare-gas diluent. As a result, there is no appreciable difference in the intrinsic efficiency between the Ar-based and the Ne-based mixtures. Selecting the optimum excitation parameters, the highest intrinsic efficiency of 5% is achieved for both diluents. Although the highest small-signal gain is achieved without a diluent gas, the extraction efficiency is reduced and the intrinsic efficiency is small due to the large amount of three-body collisional quenching.