Spontaneous emission and the gas temperature in a pulsed copper vapor laser

A study was made of spontaneous emission from a pulsed copper vapor laser, the radiation being recorded both along and at right angles to the axis of a discharge tube 1 cm in diameter and 70-cm long. Self-absorption was found to be the principal mechanism for broadening the spontaneous emission lines from the discharge. The self-absorption was very weak for lines with small oscillator strengths at the beginning of an emission pulse. The gas temperature was estimated from the Doppler broadening of the 540 nm neon line. It was found that a gas temperature of 2500 K was reached for an input power of 2.5 kW.