Hercules, an XeCl excimer laser facility for high-intensity irradiation experiments

Hercules is a XeCl excimer laser (wavelength lambda=308 nm) designed and constructed about ten years ago at the Laboratories of ENEA Frascati. It can deliver up to 10 J output energy at a repetition rate of 10Hz. Since 1992, Hercules is a laser facility available to check the feasibility of processes and/or the effects occurring to materials irradiated with ultraviolet radiation at very high energy fluence (up to 10(6) Jcm(-2)) or at high intensity level (up to 10(14) Wcm(-2)) or over a large area (up to 50 cm(2) per shot). Here we present a summary of the main mechanical, electrical and optical characteristics of Hercules, together with a selected list of irradiation experiments, including the generation of soft X-rays by laser-driven plasmas, the shock hardening of metals, the surface modification of textile fabrics, the crystallisation of amorphous silicon.