Inversion Mechanisms in Gas Lasers

Abstract

A review of recent developments in the gas laser field is given which is intended to supplement a previous, more detailed paper by the author on the same subject. In addition, a number of new results have been described. The present paper has six main sections dealing with: a summary of general laser considerations, inversion saturation mechanisms in four-level systems, possible two- and three-level collision lasers, stimulated emission pumping, transient inversions, and ion lasers. Emphasis has been placed on atomic systems in this work and a summary of currently known gas laser transitions is included as an appendix to this paper.