Theory
A krypton fluoride laser absorbs energy from a source, causing the krypton gas to react with the fluorine gas producing krypton fluoride, a temporary complex, in an excited energy state:
- 2 Kr + F2 → 2 KrF
The complex can undergo spontaneous or stimulated emission, reducing its energy state to a metastable, but highly repulsive ground state. The ground state complex quickly dissociates into unbound atoms:
- 2 KrF → 2 Kr + F2
The result is an exciplex laser that radiates energy at 248 nm, which lies in the near ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, corresponding with the energy difference between the ground state and the excited state of the complex.
Read more about this topic: Krypton Fluoride Laser
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