Pulse energy scaling characteristics of longitudinally excited Sr+discharge recombination lasers

Pulse energy scaling of longitudinally excited Sr
⁺
discharge recombination lasers has been investigated for a series of tubes with active volumes of 30, 200, and 1000 cm
³
operating at low pulse repetition rates. Specific energy densities (
\sim 6-9 \mu
J/cm
³
in the short-pulse mode) and conversion efficiencies (∼ 0.1 percent) were found to remain approximately constant with increasing volume. Single pulse energies exceeding 6 mJ at λ 430.5 nm corresponding to peak powers aver 20 kW have been achieved.