Wide-aperture electric-discharge nitrogen laser

The parameters of a wide-aperture nitrogen laser pumped by a generator with the inductive energy storage and a SOS diode opening switch or a generator with the capacitive energy storage are studied. The gas preionisation was performed by soft X-rays. The size of the active volume of the laser was 10×6×100 cm. The output energy and power obtained at the 337.1-nm C 3 Π u — B 3 Π g transition are maximal for electric-discharge nitrogen lasers. The output energy in the second positive system of nitrogen in the N 2 —SF 6 mixture achieved 110 mJ for a peak power of 6 MW. Due to an increase in voltage across the laser gap in nitrogen mixtures with NF 3 , the generation of ∼35-mJ, 100-ns pulses was obtained in the quasi-stationary stage of the discharge.