A 650-J XeCl laser

A 308-nm XeCl laser with an active volume of 200 L is described and the results of its tests are presented. The output energy of 660 J is obtained by pumping the Ar : Xe : HCl = 1520 : 40 : 2-Torr mixture. The FWHM laser pulse duration is ~350 ns. The nonuniformity of the laser-radiation density distribution over the cross section of the output beam in the near-field zone is within 10%. An accelerator that forms a radially converging electron beam with an electron energy of up to 550 keV, a vacuum-diode current of up to 320kA, a beam-current pulse duration of ~1 μs, and a beam current of up to 250 kA is used to pump the system. Two linear transformers with a 98-kJ energy stored in the primary storage serve as high-voltage sources. To reduce the effect of the self-magnetic field on the beam formation, the vacuum diode is divided into six diodes magnetically insulated from each other.