ABSTRACT
In the period 1965–1980, metal vapor lasers that later formed an individual class of gas lasers aroused a significant scientific interest in the field of quantum electronics. The active media of these lasers consist of chemical element vapor that does not exist in the gas state under normal conditions. Despite the great spectral abilities of these lasers, they have advanced relatively slowly because of the need to overcome numerous difficulties of technical nature, related to their realization as practically operating devices. Pulsed laser action in metal vapor can arise in the afterglow of a pulsed discharge as a result of collisional recombination of doubly ionized metal ions. This recombination includes two processes. The first process occurs during the current pulse. The second process is developing the afterglow when the plasma produced begins to decay. Metal vapor ion lasers generating in the deep ultraviolet spectrum are applied mainly in the development of spectral methods based on the Raman spectroscopy.
