Nuclear-pumped lasing of 3He-Xe and 3He-Kr

Abstract

Direct nuclear pumping of 3He-Xe and 3He-Kr has been achieved using the volumetric 3He(n,p)3H nuclear reaction. Lasing occurred at 2.027 μ and near 2.5 μ in Xe I and Kr I, respectively. The Xe transition has the lowest lasing flux threshold to date, 4×1015 n/cm2 sec. Scaling with both thermal flux and total pressure has been investigated.