Gas Lasers

List of Contributors

Treatise Preface

Preface


1 Introduction and Overview

I. Introduction to Gas Lasers

II. Historical Summary

III. Principles of Laser Systems

IV. Future Directions

References


2 Negative Ion Formation in Gas Lasers

I. Introduction

II. Role of Negative Ions in Gas Lasers

III. Mechanism of Formation

IV. Measurement Techniques

V. Critical Review of Data

References


3 High Pressure Ion Kinetics

I. Introduction

II. Ion-Molecule Reaction Rates

III. Energy Considerations in Ion Reactions

IV. Termolecular Ion Kinetics in Glow Discharges

V. Sources of High Pressure Ion Kinetic Data

VI. Concluding Remarks

References


4 Relaxation of Molecules Exchanging Vibrational Energy

I. Introduction

II. Kinetic Equation Description

III. Experimental Applications

References


5 Ion-Ion Recombination in High Pressure Plasmas

I. Recent Theoretical Advances

II. Recombination as a Function of Gas Density

III. Basic Microscopic Theory of Recombination

IV. Recombination Rates for Various Rare-Gas Halide Systems

V. Conclusion

References


6 Electron-Ion Recombination in Gas Lasers

I. Introduction

II. Basic Processes and Definitions

III. Magnitudes and Energy Dependences of the Recombination Coefficients

IV. Regions of Importance for the Various Recombination Processes

V. Product States of Recombination

VI. Laser Applications

References


7 Collision Processes in Chemical Lasers

I. Introduction

II. Vibration-to-Rotation Energy Transfer

III. Rotational Population Transfer

IV. Collisional Rates from Pressure Broadened Linewidths

V. Concluding Remarks

References


8 High Energy CO2 Laser Amplifiers

I. Introduction

II. CO2 Laser Inversion Physics

III. Efficiency of CO2 Laser Amplifiers

References


9 Spectroscopy and Excited State Chemistry of Excimer Lasers

I. Introduction

II. Spectroscopy of Excimer Systems

III. Excited State Chemistry

References


10 Rare-Gas Halide Lasers

I. Introduction

II. Formation Kinetics of the Upper Laser Level

III. Quenching Kinetics of the Rare-Gas Halides

IV. Pumping Considerations

V. Power Extraction

References


11 Properties of Electron-Beam Controlled XeCl (B→X) and HgBr (B→X) Laser Discharges

I. Introduction

II. Electron-Beam Controlled Discharges

III. Rare-Gas Halide and Mercury Halide Lasers

IV. Excited State and Ionic Kinetics

V. Summary

References


12 Transient Optical Absorption in the Ultraviolet

I. Introduction

II. Absorption in Pure Rare Gases

III. Binary Mixtures

IV. An Example

V. Uniformly Distributed Loss

References


13 Preionized Self-Sustained Laser Discharges

I. Introduction

II. Preionized Self-Sustained Laser Discharge Experiments

III. Ultraviolet Preionization Physics

IV. Self-Sustained Glow Discharge Physics

V. Discussion

References


14 Stability of Excimer Laser Discharges

I. Introduction

II. Ionization Instability—General Theoretical Results

III. Ionization Instability in KrF* Laser Discharges

IV. Summary and Conclusions

Appendix A. Ionization Instability Theory

Appendix B. Total Ionization Rate Constants

References

Index