UV pre-ionized wide-aperture XeCl laser using magnetic pulse compression

To provide a spatially homogeneous and sufficiently high-voltage discharge, the laser described here used LC inversion and two-stage magnetic pulse compression in the excitation circuit and used UV radiation for pre-ionization. It also employed one commercial thyratron as a high-voltage switch. Evaluation of the dynamic magnetic characteristics of four magnetic materials in a magnetic pulse compression circuit showed that the Fe-based nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy was the best core material for a compact switch with low core loss. At a 10 Hz repetition rate the maximum output energy obtained in a 80/spl times/60 nm discharge cross section and in 70 ns pulses (FWHM) was 6.2 J.