Physical processes in gas lasers

The book is devoted to elementary and transfer processes that define excitation mechanisms and optimal output parameters of gas lasers. Analysis of the formation of population inversion includes definitions of various types of nonequilibrium states of atomic and molecular gas and low-temperature plasma; different approaches to energy input into the active medium are examined. In addition, recent published results pertaining to such phenomena as nonequilibrium oscillation kinetics of molecules, theory of instability and high-pressure discharge, and gas discharge contraction are reviewed, as applicable to He-Ne, CO, CO2, and excimer lasers.