Characteristics of the electron beam pumped iodine monofluoride laser

Electron beam pumping of Ar/CF
3
I/NF
3
mixtures yields optical pulse lengths
\sim0.5 \mu
s from iodine monofluoride. Laser efficiency in this system is ∼0.04 percent. Laser performance is limited by the formation of molecular iodine. The formation of molecular iodine in the excited state (I*
2
) reduces the number of iodine atoms available to form IF*. In the ground state, molecular iodine (I
2
) absorbs the IF* laser emission at 485 and 491 nm.