Extrema of electron density and output pulse energy in a CuCl/Ne discharge and a Cu/CuCl double-pulsed laser

Abstract
Electron‐density measurements have been made in a CuCl/Ne discharge using a CO2 laser interferometer. A local maximum followed by a local minimum in electron density have been found to move a higher tube temperature with higher buffer pressure. Extrema in Cu/CuCl double‐pulsed laser energy may be correlated with the extrema in electron density. An analysis based on rate equations yields qualitative agreement with measured laser‐pulse energies. The results support the idea that ionization of copper is primarily responsible for the decrease of laser output as the tube temperature is increased.