Abstract

A terawatt-class picosecond KrF laser system is now under construction for research on XUV lasers through basic studies of highly excited atoms and high-density plasmas. A schematic diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 1. Eight laser devices constituting the system are almost completed and are listed in Table I. The mode-locked coumarin dye laser pumped by a long-pulse (200-ns) XeCI laser was employed to generate a picosecond optical pulse. The single pulse in the latter part of the pulse train was amplified by dye amplifiers pumped by a short-pulse (10-ns) XeCI laser and converted to the KrF laser wavelength by a lithium formate monohydrate crystal. At present, the pulse duration of UV light is 20 ps. Two high-repetition discharge KrF lasers are being operated to amplify this pulse to the gigawatt power level.

© 1986 Optical Society of America