The Nike laser at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC is a 56-beam, 4–5 kJ per pulse electron beam pumped krypton fluoride excimer laser which operates in the ultraviolet at 248 nm with pulsewidths of a few nanoseconds.
This feature is especially important for minimizing the seeding of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in the imploding fusion target capsule plasma.
In a gas-based laser, the entire gas molecule changes energy levels to release light.
This is applied to a solid state (or magnetic) switch that transfers that energy into a water-filled transmission line.
A laser beam passes across the plasma switch, which induces streams of electrons to strike an emitter plate that pumps the energy into the KRF or ARF gas.