Production of laser-heated plasma in high- pressure Ar gas and emission characteristics of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from Ar2 excimers

Abstract.A new pump scheme for the realization of a practical Ar2 excimer laser operating at 126 nm has been proposed and investigated experimentally. In this scheme, pre-ionized high-pressure Ar gas was excited by an intense transversely-excited atmospheric (TEA) CO2 laser irradiation. A 100-mm-long line plasma was successfully produced at an argon gas pressure of 2 MPa. The vacuum ultraviolet emission at 126 nm from the Ar2 excimers was observed and its emission characteristics were investigated under various experimental conditions.