Feasibility of developing a cw laser with a radionuclide pump source

An investigation was made of a quasi-cw low-threshold laser utilizing an Ar–Xe mixture (λ = 2.03 and 2.65 μm) excited by uranium fission fragments. When an Ar:Xe = 400:1 mixture at a pressure of 0.25 atm was excited, the λ = 2.03 μm lasing threshold was reached at a thermal neutron flux density of 1.5 X 10¹² (cm² · s) ^{– 1}, corresponding to a specific pump power of ~ 0.02 W/cm³. It was found that this laser could be pumped also by α particles from ²¹⁰Po and ²⁴²Cm radionuclide sources.