Extrema of electron density and output pulse energy in a CuCl/Ne discharge and a Cu/CuCl double-pulsed laser

Electron-density measurements have been made in a CuCl/Ne discharge using a CO2 laser interferometer. A local maximum followed by a local minimum in electron density have been found to move a higher tube temperature with higher buffer pressure. Extrema in Cu/CuCl double-pulsed laser energy may be correlated with the extrema in electron density. An analysis based on rate equations yields qualitative agreement with measured laser-pulse energies. The results support the idea that ionization of copper is primarily responsible for the decrease of laser output as the tube temperature is increased.