Saturation parameter and intensity of argon laser radiation

An investigation of an argon laser with a wide-aperture discharge tube led to the conclusion that the known reasons for saturation of the output power should be supplemented by saturation of quenching of the upper active level. The gas-pressure dependences of the radiation power and saturation parameter of the 488 nm line differed from the dependences obtained for the 514 nm line, indicating that electron quenching is not the only mechanism influencing the active levels of an excited ion in an argon laser plasma.