Dynamics of growth of a discharge and ultimate energy characteristics of lasers utilizing He–Xe–HCl mixtures

The results are given of numerical modeling of the dynamics of growth of a self-sustained discharge in a mixture of the He:Xe:HCl = 100:1:0.2 composition (p = 2 atm). The fullest possible allowance is made for the great variety of all the elementary processes which occur in the plasma of an excimer laser. It is shown that the duration of emission in the case of a low photon density resonator is limited by the growth of a multistage ionization instability in the presence of a spatially inhomogeneous perturbation of the electron density across the current. At high values of the photon flux density the duration of emission is governed by the depletion time of the halogen carrier.