Spontaneous emission at 193 nm and gain measurements in F2 containing excimer gas mixtures

The net gain and spontaneous emission at 193 nm have been measured in x-ray pre-ionized discharges excited by a single pulse charge transfer scheme in Ar and F2 containing mixtures with He and Ne as a buffer gas. With a pumping pulse of ~ 100 ns (FWHM) and a specific peak power deposition of ~ 1 MW cm-3 bar-1 in a gas mixture containing F2 : Ar : He (0.1% : 5% : 94.9%) at 2 bar total pressure the spontaneous emission with a peak intensity of ~ 200 W srad-1 and a pulse width (FWHM) of ~ 60 ns was measured. The net gain profile with a peak value ~ 20% cm-1 and a pulse width FWHM ~ 60 ns has been obtained under the same pumping conditions.