Excimer lasers, principles

A photosensitive triazene polymer with the structure shown in Scheme 8 was applied and a XeF excimer laser (351 nm) was used as irradiation source. Ejected plumes and blast waves were illuminated by fluorescence from a methanol solution of Rhodamine 101 which was excited by the second harmonic of a Q-switched Nd3+ YAG laser. The principles of this imaging method are the same as those reported previously for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) [94, 195, 199, 207] and liquid benzene [208]. 

In 1970 the first report of the molecular hydrogen laser opened up a decade of activity in VUV laser development, which included the appearance of rare gas excimer and exciplex lasers and the achievement of tunable coherent radiation in the Lyman-a region via harmonic generation. The surge of activity in the development of VUV lasers arose in part from the uniqueness of the VUV region, in part from the ultimate interest in X-ray lasers and, from our perspective, from the exciting prospects in spectroscopy and molecular dynamics promised by narrow linewidth, tunable, high-power VUV laser pulses for state-selective studies. Here we review the principles on which VUV lasers are based. 

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