RELAXATION PROCESSES AND AMPLIFICATION OF RADIATION IN A DENSE PLASMA

Gordiets,B.F., Gudzenko,L.I., Shelepin,L.A.: 1969, Sov.Phys.JETP, 28, 489.

Some features of relaxation in a dense low-temperature highly ionized plasma of a many-electron chemical element are discussed. It is shown that the decisive role played by the collision transitions and the competition of various relaxation channels cause (under certain conditions) a number a number of levels of such a medium to acquire a population inversion that is practically independent of either the probabilities for spontaneous radiative transitions involving the frequencies in the infrared or visible spectra, or of the reabsorption of the radiation. This is an important property of lasers with a dense, highly ionized plasma (plasma lasers). The negative absorption coefficient in such a medium is very large. Numerical calculations for the case of recombining lithium plasmas illustrate the feasibility of the conditions formulated in the paper.


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