REGENERATIVE AMPLIFICATION OF SUBNANOSECOND AND PICOSECOND PULSES IN RARE-GAS HALIDE EXCIMER AMPLIFIER

Numerical investigations of noncoherent amplification of short pulses in a regenerative rare-gas halide excimer amplifier have been performed. The amplifier's model, in particular, includes the vibrational relaxation and collisional mixing of the B, C states of excimer molecule, amplified spontaneous emission and a possible presence of additional saturable absorber in the resonator. There was analysed the influence of the input pulse parameters on energy, power, duration, and contrast of the amplified pulse in a regenerative and two-pass system of parameters typical for the KrF amplifier. It was found that the regenerative amplifier and, first of all, amplifier with a properly matched absorber in the resonator, can ensure higher pulse parameters than the single-or two-pass amplifier, and it can be an attractive alternative for non-regenerative systems used in short-pulse high-power excimer lasers.