Observation of super Coster-Kronig-pumped gain in Zn III
Optics Letters
|September 11, 2009
Abstract:
We report the observation of laser gain in the vacuum ultraviolet pumped by super Coster-Kronig decay. Using a 5-J, 300-psec pump pulse of 1064-nm radiation, we have observed gain on transitions in Zn III at 127.0, 130.6, and 131.9 nm with total gains of exp(2.4), exp(5.1), and exp(3.2), respectively. The large branching ratios of the rapid super Coster-Kronig decay into a small number of final levels makes high-efficiency operation possible.
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