On the nature of phantom currents in the active medium of self-contained metal atom transition lasers

The amplitude and duration of currents flowing in a discharge circuit of a laser are studied depending on the parameters of the active medium and excitation conditions. It is shown that a phantom current is determined by the specificity of charging the capacitive component of the impedance of a gas-discharge tube (GDT) in the laser. In this case, the current flowing through a thyratron is the charging current of the capacitive components of the impedance of the discharge circuit of the laser. As a result, currents flowing through the thyratron and GDT are substantially different. The active medium is at the same potential during the existence of the phantom current, which prevents prepulse electrons in the plasma from accumulating the energy required to realise inelastic collisions in the active medium.