Convective flow in discharge tubes of pulse-periodic gas-discharge lasers

Closed convective flow of the gas in discharge tubes of pulse-periodic lasers was observed for the first time. The results obtained indicate that the observed flow was similar to the Rayleigh flow in strong acoustic fields. The time-average value of the flow velocity was governed by the deposited energy (per molecule) and depended resonantly on the repetition frequency of the excitation pulses.