Design of a magnetically-isolated pulsed power system for a 1 kW XeCl excimer laser

A 20 J per-pulse, 50 Hz, 2 kW average-power excimer gas laser pulser has been designed. The design utilizes a high-efficiency spiker-sustainer circuit with a magnetic isolation circuit to achieve high-power, efficient electrical pumping combined with long lifetime and reliable switching of high currents. This design makes possible the operation of XeCl lasers at high pulse energy and high power. The charging and firing sequence, magnetic isolation switch, sustainer pulse-forming network, power conditioning, pulser tank, and control system are described.<>