Abstract
A strontium vapor recombination laser giving 1-W average power at the 430.5-nm Sr II wavelength is described. Laser action occurs in the early after-glow of a high-repetition-rate longitudinal discharge. Pumping of the strontium ion upper laser level occurs by recombination of doubly ionized strontium for a period of several hundred nanoseconds immediately after termination of the discharge current pulse. Recombination is optimized by use of a buffer gas, typically He at several hundred torr of pressure, which cools the electrons by elastic collisions: the recombination rate by three-body collisions is increased by reducing electron temperature.
© 1985 Optical Society of America
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