HF waveguide laser study

The feasibility of a purely electrical excitation mechanism for HF waveguide lasers was investigated whereby HF molecules are heavily diluted in a helium buffer gas and vibrationally excited through inelastic collisions in a discharge confined to a 1 x 1 mm channel of 8 cm length. Among the many HF vibration-rotation transitions there are several candidates for laser action. The relative population of their respective initial and terminal levels was ascertained from the measured intensity of the associated fluorescence. The data indicated inversion for some of the high J-number P-transitions. But since these levels were sparsely populated the resulting gain was extremely small and blanketed by scattering losses.