Influence of electron-F2 collisions in rare gas–halide laser discharges

The influence of F2 vibrational excitation and direct dissociation by electron impact is examined for conditions typical of electron-beam-sustained KrF* lasers. For values of F2 fractional concentration greater than about 0.003 the results of this analysis indicate that the dissociation process e+F2→2F+e may significantly affect electron-metastable atom production efficiency, rare gas–halide excimer production efficiency, and gain.