Short-cavity hydrogen-halide laser.

Laser action in HCl and HBr with a short-length-cavity TEA laser has been investigated. Support of the discharge by preionization resulted in reliable operation with pulse-to-pulse stability of better than 5%. Both efficient multiline and single-line operation are described. Maximum output energies of 120 and 35 mJ were measured in multiline operation, and 55 and 6 mJ were obtained from a single line for HCl and HBr, respectively. Energy conversion was 0.89 and 0.26% for the HCl and HBr system.