Efficient operation of the electron-beam-pumped XeCl laser

Efficient operation (5.0%) of the long-pulse (0.5 μsec) XeCl laser is obtained by electron-beam pumping of mixtures of neon, xenon, and HCl. Laser emission is observed at 308.0 and 308.2 nm. A small-signal gain of 2.6% cm−1 is measured from which the saturation intensity is calculated to be ∼0.35 MW cm−2 and the optical absorption at the laser wavelength is calculated to be ∼0.26% cm−1. The electron-beam-pumped XeCl laser can be operated under static fill conditions with no measurable degradation in output power.