TEA laser excited by a self-sustained discharge and emitting due to infrared transitions in Xe I, Kr I, Ar I, and Ne I

Fairly intense output pulses due to infrared transitions in Xe I, Kr I, Ar I, and Ne I rare gases were generated in a simple TEA laser excited by a self-sustained discharge. Characteristics of the energy, spectral, and time parameters of this laser were studied. A specific output energy of 70 mJ · liter^–1 · atm^–1 was obtained for Xe I. It was found that the addition of Ar to a binary Ne–He mixture resulted in lasing at the 1.15 μm wavelength in a TEA laser.