Recombination in a Cu laser plasma with high buffer gas pressures

It is shown that an increase in the volume of a copper vapor laser above a certain value must lead to a rise in the optimal buffer gas pressure. There is a corresponding change in the electron cooling mechanism (during the interpulse period) from diffusive to elastic cooling, and recombination processes involving three-body collisions in the plasma become important, setting the upper limit to the pressure and specific output energy of the laser. The results are given of a series of experiments and numerical calculations for a medium excited under these conditions by a transverse discharge.