Electric-discharge XeCl laser emitting pulses of 500-ns duration

An investigation was made of an XeCl laser with ultraviolet preionization and a 4 X 4-cm active region cross section. A half-height laser output pulse duration of 500 ns was obtained by employing a laser excitation scheme based on KMK and IK-100 capacitors. The composition of the active gas mixture influenced the duration of a laser pulse.