High temperature studies of electron-beam pumped argon-nitrogen laser characteristics

Gain and laser output power of an electron beam pumped Ar-N2mixture were measured over the temperature range 25 to 350°C. The gain is about 0.6 cm^-1at room temperature, and increases to almost 1 cm^-1at 250°C. The laser performance at elevated temperatures was determined using a specially designed high temperature resonator. The fluorescence yield and laser output are found to decrease monotonically with temperature.