Modeling of the atomic Ne laser in He/Ne/Ar gas mixtures

Journal Article · Tue Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Bulletin of the American Physical Society

OSTI ID:127960

Jong, W; Kushner, S; Kushner, M J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)

The high pressure atomic Ne laser operates on 4 visible transitions between the 3p and 3s manifolds. There has been renewed interest in this laser due to demonstrated high efficiency lasing at 585 nm in e-beam and fission fragment excited plasmas. A comprehensive computer model for the Ne laser in He/Ne/Ar mixtures has been developed to examine excitation mechanisms. The authors found that direct excitation of the 3p manifold by dissociative recombination of Ne{sub 2}{sup +} is the likely pumping mechanism, while state-selective Penning reactions dominantly relax the lower levels. Comparisons to experiments performed on a short pulsed e-beam excited laser showed that the electron temperature in the afterglow is determined by a slow relaxation of excited states in Ar. Oscillation does not occur until these manifolds are depleted, and the electron temperature falls. Scaling laws for the Ne laser at low pump powers, as obtained using fission fragment excitation, will be discussed.

• OSTI ID: 127960
• Report Number(s): CONF-920376--
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Physical Society Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 37; ISSN BAPSA6; ISSN 0003-0503
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
ARGON
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRON BEAM PUMPING
FISSION FRAGMENTS
GAS LASERS
HELIUM
NEON
THERMAL NEUTRONS