A coaxial e-beam excitation system for high power excimer lasers

We report the successful operation of a medium scale, high current density (230 A/cm2) coaxial e-beam device for excimer laser pumping. Construction, input energy, and output energy are described. Compared with a one-sided transversal system the specific input energy is more than three times higher. This is attributed to the absence of a foil support structure, a better concentration of the energy into the gain volume, and an extra contribution of electrons reflected by the potential field. Moreover, we showed that at high current densities a laser efficiency of about 10% can be obtained and a specific output of 24 J/ℓ