The influence of the buffer gases on the discharge homogeneity of F₂doped excimer laser gas mixtures is investigated in a small x-ray preionised high-pressure discharge chamber. The spatial and temporal development of discharges in He/F₂ and Ne/F₂ gas mixtures is monitored via its fluorescence using an intensified CCD camera with a gating time of 300 ps. The formation and development of discharge filaments in He/F₂ gas mixtures is completely different from that in Ne/F₂. Under the same start up conditions, discharges in Ne/F₂ are dominated by cathode hotspots where as no hot spots are visible in discharges in He/F₂ gas mixtures. However, the discharges in Ne/F₂ gas mixtures appear to be more uniform even though the discharge width decreases in time and hotspots are persistent on the cathode surface.

Date Published: 11 October 2005
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 5958, Lasers and Applications, 59581A (11 October 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.622900

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5958:
Lasers and Applications
Krzysztof M. Abramski; Antonio Lapucci; Edward F. Plinski, Editor(s)