[en] A full and representative description of the excited copper level kinetics in a copper-vapor laser is presented. The research was carried out in three stages. The first stage was the development of a representative and reliable measurement cell. A laser tube constructed of refractory materials and an excitation circuit which provides short pulses at a high repetition rate to heat the tube and excite the copper atoms were developed. This stage was also dedicated to characterizing the laser and studying its scaling laws. In the second stage a rapid neasuring system which avoids the problem of spectral line shape was developed. The system is based on the 'hook' method, which utilizes the anomalous dispersion in the vicinity of an atomic line. The light source, a wide band nitrogen-laser-pumped dye laser, ensures a short sampling time, and the recording system, with a television camera face as the recording medium, allows precise data reduction. In the third stage the excited copper level kinetics in a copper vapor laser is measured. The principal conclusions, that only a small part of the energy in the discharge is utilized to populate the upper laser levels and that the lower laser level population is very large at the end of the excitation pulse and cannot be attributed to relaxation of the upper levels, necessitate a new kinetic description of the copper-vapor laser. The laser is not self-terminating; it is activated and terminated by the electrical discharge

[en] A prototype system for the characterization of LiNbO₃ crystals by parametric fluorescence was designed and constructed. A specially built metal vapor laser served as a pump and as a calibrator for the system. It was operated both in the He-Cd⁺ mode and in the He-Se⁺ mode. Fluorescence in the 500 nm range, intra-cavity modulation and a correlation detector gave a sensitivity limit of 10^-15 W, and therby enabled the tunning curve and the d₁₅ of the crystal to be measured. (author)

[en] The considerations necessary for the design and construction of an inexpensive, reliable copper halide laser are presented. A broad range of parameters which govern the output of the double-pulse copper-halide laser was studied. The laser has an optimum operating temperature which is different for each halide uCl, CuBr, CuI), but corresponds to a halide vapor pressure of about 0.1 torr for all three halides. At low repetition rates the highest laser output is achieved with helium as buffer gas. The laser output increases linearly with laser tube cross-section. As the tube diameter is increased, the dissociation energy must be increased, but not the excitation energy. A thyratron bias circuit has been developed which permits both dissociation and excitation pulses to be obtained from the same capacitor (with a small delay) without thyratron latch. Use of the single thyratron reduces the laser cost considerably. A laser tube with an operating life of many hundreds of hours has been designed. The description of a laser with an output of 0.5 mJ per pulse at repetition rates of up to 120 pulses per second is given. The design and construction of various components of this laser are given in detail. (authors)

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