Hercules: an XeCl excimer laser facility for high-intensity irradiation experiments

Hercules is a XeCl excimer laser designed and constructed about ten years ago at the Laboratories of ENEA Frascati. It can deliver up to 10 J output energy at a repetition rate of 10Hz. Since 1992, Hercules is a laser facility available to check the feasibility of processes and/or the effects occurring to materials irradiated with ultraviolet radiation at very high energy fluence or at high intensity level or over a large area. Here we present a summary of the main mechanical, electrical and optical characteristics of Hercules, together with a selected list of irradiation experiments, including the generation of soft x-rays amorphous silicon.