Electronic transition lasers

A brief description is given of the various initiation techniques employed as well as of some representative electronic transition laser systems. Two basic approaches used for experimental investigations are discussed: electrically initiated and chemically initiated electronic transition lasers. In the first approach, the sample gas is irradiated by a high current electron beam which produces large densities of electronically excited states of one or more of the components of the gas; these electronically excited states would then relax to a relatively 'metastable' excited state from which they could either lase or undergo a chemical reaction, producing a laser inversion in the product species. The second approach investigates chemical reactions of specified form in order to ascertain the possibility of producing an inversion in the AB molecule.