Induced optogalvanic effect and its application in an He—Ne/CH4 laser

A method is proposed for the observation of atomic and molecular resonances in gases with the aid of the optogalvanic effect in the absence of a discharge in the investigated gas. A description is given of an experimental implementation of this method for the observation of resonances in methane at the wavelength of 3.39 μm. The example of a helium–neon laser is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the observation of a resonance used to stabilise the frequency of a transportable laser.