The non-self-sustaining gas discharge for exciting continuouswave gas lasers

This review devotes its major attention to analyzing the physical processes that govern the stability of uniform burning of the volume gas discharges that are used to excite high-pressure CO$_2$ lasers. An analysis is given of the theoretical and experimental studies that have shown a substantial increase in the time of uniform burning of a non-self-sustaining gas discharge as the electric power density is decreased. Specificially, this has made it possible to convert the discharge in practice into a steady-state burning regime at elevated gas pressure. The optical characteristics of gas mixtures based on carbon dioxide that are established upon excitation of the medium by a steady-state non-self-sustaining discharge are examined.