Excimer XeCl laser excited by microsecond megawatt microwave pulses from a commercial 3.07-GHz microwave oscillator

An excimer laser (λ ≈ 308 nm) utilizing an Ne–Xe–HCl mixture was excited by microwave (ν₀ = 3.07 GHz) pulses of 2.8-μs duration and ~ 0.9 MW power delivered by a commercial microwave oscillator. A peak laser radiation power of 130 W was obtained in pulses of 280 ns duration. Laser radiation from along the center of a laser tube was recorded in addition to that from the skin layer.