ABSTRACT

The gain medium in pulsed gas lasers such as excimer, copper vapour (CVL) etc is gaseous plasma. In these systems, substantial electron energy is required in order to reach and maintain population inversion. Electrons need to be situated in an electrical field E in order to gain energy and the field strength is inversely proportional to the electrodes spacing d:

E ∼ V/d where V is the voltage between the electrodes. Since the plasma has an impedance Z , supplying the electrons with energy is associated with power P:

P = V 2

Z .