Pulsed metal-vapour lasers

Pulsed metal-vapour lasers are powerful and useful sources of coherent radiation from the ultraviolet to the infrared. Whereas cyclic lasers (e.g. the copper vapour laser) rely on an upwards pumping at the leading edge of a current pulse (the ionization nonequilibrium regime), recombination-laser levels (e.g. the strontium vapour laser) are populated by a downwards flux from higher-lying levels at the end of a current pulse and into the afterglow (recombination non-equilibrium). These lasers are expected to remain important for some years to come, given their established place in the market and their continuing technological development