Energy parameters and stability of the discharge in a nonchain, self-sustained-discharge-pumped HF laser

The generation and discharge are studied in a nonchain HF laser operating on mixtures of SF₆ with hydrogen and hydrocarbons. The specific output energy of the laser is 8.8 J L^-1 (73 J L^-1 atm^-1) and the total lasing efficiency is 5.5%. It is shown that the formation and maintaining of a volume discharge in self-sustained-discharge-pumped HF lasers with a large content of electronegative gases is caused by the accumulation of the volume discharge of negative ions in conducting regions.