VUV spectrum investigation of laser-induced plasma emission in argon-fluoride mixture

Excimer lasers with the short wavelengths and high energies, have important applications in photolithography, materials processing, medicine, scientific research and other fields. However, it was still not hard to directly generate an ultra-short VUV excimer pulse. In this article, the possibility to directly generate excimer light pulse from laser induced plasma is discussed, which will acts as the picket and spike pulse for shock ignition of fusion. VUV spectrum of laser induced plasma emission in Argon fluoride mixture was experimentally investigated. From the plasma spectrum of the argon-fluorine mixture, a distinct argon fluoride excimer line at 193.6nm is evident. And the bandwidth with a FWHM of 3.7 nm is markedly larger than that of the fluorescence bandwidth of the electron-beam-pumped argon fluoride fluorescence, which indicates a potential duration limitation of teens nanosecond. All the experimental results confirm the feasibility to develop a laser pumped Rare-Halogen excimer short pulse light source.