Search results for ""author christopher e. little""

Metal Vapour Lasers Christopher E. Little University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland Since the first successful demonstration of a metal vapour laser (MVL) in 1962, this class of laser has become widely used in a broad range of fields including precision materials processing, isotope separation and medicine. The MVLs that are used today have a range of impressive characteristics that are not readily available using other technologies. In particular, the combination of high average output powers, pulse recurrence frequencies and beam quality available from green/yellow Cu vapour lasers (CVLs) and Cu bromide lasers, coupled with the high-quality, multiwatt ultraviolet (265-289 nm) radiation that can be produced using simple nonlinear optical techniques, means that Cu lasers will continue to be important for many years. Metal Vapour Lasers covers all the most commercially important and scientifically interesting pulsed and continuous wave (CW) gas-discharge MVLs, and includes device histories, operating characteristics, engineering, kinetics, commercial exploitation and applications. Short descriptions of gas discharges and excitation techniques make this volume self-consistent. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided. The greater part of this book is devoted to CVLs and their variants, including new sealed-off, high-power 'kinetically enhanced' CVLs and Cu bromide lasers. However, many other self-terminating MVLs are also discussed, including the red AuVL, green/infrared MnVL and infrared BaVL. Pulsed, high-gain, high average power lasers in the UV/violet (373.7, 430.5 nm) spectral regions are represented by Sr¯+ and Ca¯+ discharge-afterglow recombination lasers. The most commercially successful of the MVLs - the CW, UV/blue cataphoretic He-Cd¯+ ion laser - is described. Hollow cathode lasers are represented in two guises: 'white light' (blue/green/red) He-Cd¯+ ion lasers and UV/infrared Ne/He-Cu¯+ ion lasers. This unique volume is an essential reference source for all those working on metal vapour lasers, and all those who use them, from postgraduate students through to experienced scientists and engineers. It will also be extremely useful to all those working in other gas laser technologies, and in gas discharge physics.

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Metal vapour ion lasers are a mature class of gas laser for which a number of applications has developed in recent years. This is the first book to appear in the English language on this topic, and concentrates on the physical processes which occur in the laser, in particular the kinetic processes which are responsible for the pumping of excited ion levels, and the production of population inversion. The most important types of electrical discharges used in this class of laser are discussed in detail, and all the major types of metal vapour ion laser are examined. A highly useful appendix tabulates all the known transitions used in metal vapour ion lasers. Metal Vapour Ion Lasers: Kinetic Processes and Gas Discharges provides a much needed review of this important field. It identifies current problem areas, and points to future research directions. It is an invaluable source for all those, both in industry and academia, working on the development or applications of metal vapour ion lasers, and for all those involved in gas laser research. It will also be of great interest to all those interested in the physics of gas discharges. The authors and translators have been involved with some of the key advances in the field over recent years.

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