Efficient oscillation regimes of an HF laser pumped by a nonchain chemical reaction initiated by a self-sustained discharge

The amplitude-time and spectral characteristics of laser radiation and discharge characteristics in mixtures of SF6 with hydrogen and hydrocarbons at a high lasing efficiency are investigated. Lasing efficiencies of similar to 10% with respect to the deposited energy are obtained under the pumping from capacitive and inductive energy storage units. It is shown that, during a pump pulse, the maximum efficiencies are achieved at high values of the parameter E/p in the laser gap. When profiled electrodes and UV preionisation are used, a specific output energy of a nonchain HF laser of similar to 140 J L-1 atm(-1) and a lasing efficiency of similar to 4.5% with respect to the stored energy were obtained. It is shown that the emission spectrum of a nonchain HF laser operating at high lasing efficiencies becomes significantly wider and cascade lasing is realised on the upsilon(3 - 2) --> upsilon(2 - 1) --> upsilon(1 - 0) vibrational transitions at several rotational lines.