The Gain Of The Optically Pumped Copper-Vapor Laser

The gain of the optically pumped copper vapor laser (OP-CVL) has been measured using a tunable dye laser. A maximum gain of 2.96 cm-1 was obtained for the green laser. This is more than ten times larger than the gain measured in a conventional longitudinal discharge copper vapor laser. It is found that the gains for the green and yellow lasers are both a linear function of temperature. Fine-structure mixing induced by collisions has been also studied and it affects the laser behavior considerably. © 1989, SPIE