Use of a discharge over a dielectric surface for preionization in excimer lasers

The conditions were determined for producing a highly homogeneous high-current discharge over a plane dielectric surface, to provide a high-power source of ultraviolet radiation creating strong preionization in the main volume discharge. This volume discharge was obtained for apertures of up to 30 cm² and interelectrode separations of up to 10 cm. It is was found experimentally that in order to achieve a high laser efficiency, the energy supplied to the auxiliary discharge must have a certain optimal value. A laser output energy of 1 J was obtained at a specific output energy of 5.8 J/liter. The overall efficiency, for a laser output of 7 J, was 1.5%.