Theoretical feasibility study of new high-efficiency continuous-wave lasers operating at electron transitions in the spectral regions from near ir to uv on the basis of unconventional mechanisms of forming the active gaseous media

Abstract

This paper is a review of the results of theoretical studies related to the search for new mechanisms, which are not yet completely understood and have not been implemented so far, of forming the active laser media that offer the prospect of development of high-efficiency continuous-wave (cw) laser operating at electron transitions (in atoms or molecules) in a wide range of wavelengths (from near IR to UV). The main attention is paid to unconventional mechanisms of forming the population inversion of lasing-active levels. These mechanisms involve the intramultiplet (due to collisions with heavy particles) or ionization-induced (due to collisions with electrons) deactivation of the lowest lasing-active atomic level; the population of the upper lasing-active level as a result of three-body electron-ion recombination induced by the presence of alkali impurity, with simultaneous intramultiplet decay of the lower level; the mechanism ensuring the lasing transitions between repulsing terms of the involved molecules; and the exchange of vibrational-electronic excitation (for example, exchange of two vibrational quanta of an excited hydrogen molecule for a single electronic quantum of the iodine atom).