Wide-aperture excimer laser system

An excimer laser system having an output aperture diameter of 40 cm and consisting of five lasers, three of which are excited by an electric discharge and the remaining two by an electron beam, is built. The first laser produces a 308-nm radiation with a duration of 200–250 ns, a spectral linewidth of 0.9 cm^-1 and the beam divergence close to the diffraction limit. This pulse is amplified in the active media of the other lasers. As a result, radiation with an energy of 5 J, spectral linewidth 0.9 cm^-1 and beam divergence 37 μrad is produced at the output of the third laser. The output energy of the entire system amounts to 330 J and the pulse duration is 200–250 ns.