Xenon fluoride laser emitting 2-nsec pulses of near-diffraction-limited divergence

An experimental determination was made of the conditions for generating short pulses in an XeF laser operating in the free-lasing regime. It was shown for the first time that by using short-duration pump pulses and a short resonator, a laser could be made to emit 2-nsec pulses having a divergence close to the diffraction limit.