Some characteristics of self-terminating manganese and lead vapor lasers

A study was made of the dependence of the energy output of manganese and lead vapor lasers on the vapor and buffer gas pressures. A difference was discovered between the energetics of the infrared and green transitions in manganese. The method of pulse pairs was used to study the dependence of the maximum pulse repetition frequency on the gas discharge conditions. It was found that, for identical excitation conditions, lasing in the second pulse is achieved for the infrared transitions with considerably shorter interpulse delay times than is the case for the green transitions. The suggestion is put forward that it is mainly the recombination rate of the electrons and not the population of the lower metastable active level which exerts an influence on the maximum pulse repetition frequency.