Stretching Of Excimer Laser Pulses

The pulse duration of discharge-pumped excimer lasers in general assumes values between 10 and 40 ns. For several purposes, including pulse transmission through optical fibers, longer pulses are required. This can be accomplished by (i) optimizing the gas mixture aiming at longest possible pulse duration instead of maximum energy, (ii) by modifying the electric circuit of standard excimer lasers, or (iii) by designing special discharge circuits including the prepulse technology.