Regular Article

Enhancement of Ne-like Ar 46.9 nm laser intensity by increasing the inner diameter of the capillary

National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Tunable Laser, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080 P.R. China

^a e-mail: zhaoyp3@hit.edu.cn

Received: 27 September 2018
Received in final form: 21 February 2019
Published online: 2 July 2019

Abstract

With the ceramic capillaries of 3.2, 4.0 and 4.8 mm inner diameter and the main current of 30 kA, the plasma conditions at the lasing time were simulated by a one-dimensional Lagrangian Magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) code and the Ne-like Ar 46.9 nm laser pulses were measured. According to the results, when the inner diameter of the capillary was increased from 3.2 mm to 4.0 mm and 4.8 mm, the intensity of the laser produced at the optimum pressure increased to 1.2 and 2.4 times, respectively. The reasons for laser enhancement were analyzed. When the main current amplitude was increased from 30 kA to 40 kA with the 4.8 mm inner diameter capillary, the laser intensity further increased to 2 times. Therefore, increasing the inner diameter of the capillary in a certain range and increasing the amplitude of the main current with a large inner diameter capillary properly, are effective ways to improve the intensity of 46.9 nm laser.