Lasers with a gaseous active medium offer high flexibility, wide tunability, and advantages in cost, beam quality, and power scalability. Gas lasers have tended to become overshadowed by the recent popularity and proliferation of semiconductor lasers. As a result of this shift in focus, details on modern developments in gas lasers are difficult to find. In addition, different types of gas lasers have unique properties that are not well-described in other references. Collecting expert contributions from authorities dealing with specific types of lasers, Gas Lasers examines the fundamentals, current research, and applications of this important class of laser. It is important to understand all types of lasers, from solid-state to gaseous, before making a decision for any application. This book fills in the gaps by discussing the definition and properties of gaseous media along with its fluid dynamics, electric excitation circuits, and optical resonators. From this foundation, the discussion launches into the basic physics, characteristics, applications, and current research efforts for specific types of gas lasers: CO lasers, CO2 lasers, HF/DF lasers, excimer lasers, iodine lasers, and metal vapor lasers. The final chapter discusses miscellaneous lasers not covered in the previous chapters. Collecting hard-to-find material into a single, convenient source, Gas Lasers offers an encyclopedic survey that helps you approach new applications with a more complete inventory of laser options.

Introduction to Gas Lasers: Population Inversion Mechanisms focuses on important processes in gas discharge lasers and basic atomic collision processes that operate in a gas laser. Organized into six chapters, this book first discusses the historical development and basic principles of gas lasers. Subsequent chapters describe the selective excitation processes in gas discharges and the specific neutral, ionized and molecular laser systems. This book will be a valuable reference on the behavior of gas-discharge lasers to anyone already in the field.

Applied Atomic Collision Physics, Volume 3: Gas Lasers describes the applications of atomic collision physics in the development of many types of gas lasers. Topics covered range from negative ion formation in gas lasers to high-pressure ion kinetics and relaxation of molecules exchanging vibrational energy. Ion-ion recombination in high-pressure plasmas is also discussed, along with electron-ion recombination in gas lasers and collision processes in chemical lasers. Comprised of 14 chapters, this volume begins with a historical summary of gas laser developments and an overview of the basic operating principles of major gas laser types. The discussion then turns to the mechanism of formation of negative ions in gas lasers; ion-ion recombination in high-pressure plasmas; electron-ion recombination in gas lasers; and collision processes in chemical lasers. Subsequent chapters focus on high-energy carbon dioxide laser amplifiers; spectroscopy and excited state chemistry of excimer lasers; rare-gas halide lasers; transient optical absorption in the ultraviolet; and pre-ionized self-sustained laser discharges. The final chapter considers the stability of excimer laser discharges. This book will be of interest to physicists and chemists.

Lasers with a gaseous active medium offer high flexibility, wide tunability, and advantages in cost, beam quality, and power scalability. Gas lasers have tended to become overshadowed by the recent popularity and proliferation of semiconductor lasers. As a result of this shift in focus, details on modern developments in gas lasers are difficult to find. In addition, different types of gas lasers have unique properties that are not well-described in other references. Collecting expert contributions from authorities dealing with specific types of lasers, Gas Lasers examines the fundamentals, current research, and applications of this important class of laser. It is important to understand all types of lasers, from solid-state to gaseous, before making a decision for any application. This book fills in the gaps by discussing the definition and properties of gaseous media along with its fluid dynamics, electric excitation circuits, and optical resonators. From this foundation, the discussion launches into the basic physics, characteristics, applications, and current research efforts for specific types of gas lasers: CO lasers, CO2 lasers, HF/DF lasers, excimer lasers, iodine lasers, and metal vapor lasers. The final chapter discusses miscellaneous lasers not covered in the previous chapters. Collecting hard-to-find material into a single, convenient source, Gas Lasers offers an encyclopedic survey that helps you approach new applications with a more complete inventory of laser options.

The gas laser's high power in all parts of the spectrum and and potential high quality with low cost make its industrial application intriguing. The 30 July 1995 proceedings papers discuss these aspects of gas lasers along with the fundamental and technological problems of different types of lasers connected with beam properties, excitation technology, new pumping schemes, pulsed power, construction materials, and new description codes. Lacks an index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Gaseous Electronics and Gas Lasers deals with the fundamental principles and methods of analysis of weakly ionized gas discharges and gas lasers. The emphasis is on processes occurring in gas discharges and the analytical methods used to calculate important process rates. Detailed analyses of a variety of gas discharges are presented using atomic, ionic, and gas lasers as primary illustrations. Comprised of 12 chapters, this book begins with some initial categorization of gas discharge species and an overview of their interactions. The discussion then turns to an elementary theory of a gas discharge; inelastic collisions; distribution functions and the Boltzmann equation; and transport coefficients. Subsequent chapters focus on the fluid equations; electron-density decay processes; excited species; atomic neutral gas lasers; molecular gas lasers; and ion lasers. The important electron loss processes that determine the behavior of a plasma when the source and loss terms balance are also examined. This monograph will be of value to graduate students, practitioners, and researchers in the fields of physics and engineering, as well as to professionals interested in working with weakly ionized discharges.

The Laser Raman Workshop on the r"eas urement of Gas Properti es i sone of aseries of occasional meetings organized in an informal workshop format through the stimulation of Project SQUID, Office of Naval Research. This workshop is the second to be organized on gas-phase applications of Raman scattering. Both Raman workshops were supported by Project SQUID, ONR, and the Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The first Raman Workshop was held at the AVCO Everett Research Laboratory, Everett, Massachusetts, with their co-sponsorship in January 1972 under the chairmanship of D. A. Leonard. The present meeting was co-sponsored by the General Electric Research and Development Center, and held at their facility in Schenectady, New York. We are grateful to Project SQUID, AFAPL, and GE for their generous financial support of this Workshop, and to Project SQUID for underwriting the publication costs of the Proceedings. As is always the case for successful meetings, many people contributed substantially to the organization and execution of this workshop. Professor Robert Goulard supported, aided, and encouraged us in the most helpful ways, and we are indebted to him. We received further valuable support and assistance from Dr. Ralph Roberts, Director, and Mr. James R. Patton, Jr., of the Power Branch, Office of Naval Research; from Dr. William H. Heiser, Chief Scientist of the Aero Propulsion Laboratory; and from Dr. James M.