Intrinsic efficiency and critical power deposition in the e-beam sustained Ar:Xe laser

Experimental investigations on an e-beam sustained near infrared Ar:Xe laser have been carried out to determine the intrinsic efficiency at optimized conditions. A parametric study at different sustainer currents reveals a maximum output energy depending on current density. Up to 8 bar the optimized laser output power per unit volume increases linearly with 1.1MW/1 bar. Intrinsic efficiencies of up to about 8% are feasible