Electrohydrodynamic Circulation System and Flow Velocity Measurement of Ultra-Compact Excimer Laser

The realization of ultra-compact excimer lasers and the efficient cycling of medium constitute a critical and challenging issue that requires resolution. This study presents the design of an ultra-compact excimer laser with no moving parts, featuring a compact size and lightweight construction, based on the principles of electrohydrodynamics (EHD). By employing an adaptive cascaded Boltzmann convolution framework, an innovative non-invasive velocity measurement method for the ultra-compact excimer laser is developed, characterized by its simplicity and high precision. The experimental results demonstrate that the measured flow velocity is in close agreement with our previously reported theoretical predictions. When the EHD pump voltage is set to 5000V and the electrode spacing is 0.6 cm, the flow velocity at the main electrode of the laser can reach 1.27 m s-1. Furthermore, we design an ultra-compact XeCl laser featuring the axial length of 300 mm and the diameter of 130 mm, and examined its energy output characteristics. The experimental results show that laser energy and stability increase with higher EHD pump voltage at high frequency. When the main electrode voltage is set to 12 kV and the discharge frequency is 100 Hz, the laser can stably output a maximum pulse energy of 2.02 mJ.