XECL EXCIMER LASER WITH A CONTINUOUSLY TUNABLE OUTPUT PULSEWIDTH

The first self-injected excimer laser is described. A continuously variable output pulse duration between 2 and 100 ns has been achieved by an opportune intracavity toss modulation. The output laser radiation consists of a train of pulses or of a single dumped pulse. In the latter case, output pulses with peak power up to 2 MW have been obtained, with remarkable stability and reproducibility characteristics.