Debris and VUV emission from a laser-produced plasma operated at 150 Hz using a krypton fluoride laser.

The output of a KrP laser (248 nm) operating at 150 Hz was focused onto metal targets to produce plasmas which emitted strongly in the VUV and XUV regions. Quantitative measurements of target debris produced in a laser-plasma light source show (1) that low pressures (~ 100 mTorr) of He buffer gas reduce the debris collected 150 mm from the target by more than an order of magnitude and (2) that the amount of debris collected rises faster than linearly with laser pulse energy in the 100-300-mJ range. This observed suppression of debris is explained in terms of a counterstreaming plasma mechanism.

Rare-earth plasma light source for VUV applications.

A compact versatile light source for producing VUV radiation from laser produced plasmas is described. Measurements of the spectral irradiance from CO(2) laser-produced plasmas on targets of gadolinium and ytterbium in the 115-220-nm range are given, and a comparison is made with analogous results obtained using a ruby laser.

Stratospheric temperature and pressure determinations from an OH fluorescence lidar instrument.

A method for remotely measuring ambient pressure and temperature at altitudes on the order of 40 km is presented. The technique is that of backscattered fluorescence from the OH radical measured from a balloon platform. Pressure is deduced from the ratio of (1, 1) fluorescence to (0, 0) fluorescence, while the temperature measurement is based on rotational level population changes with changes in temperature.

High-power TEM(00) tunable laser system.

A 45-MW, 25-nsec duration, tunable laser operates in the near-ir and can be frequently-doubled to produce a 20-nsec duration uv output of 7.5 MW. The additional feature of a near single spatial mode makes this laser a tunable source of exceptional brightness.