Proton beam excited lasers

The concept of proton beam pumped high pressure (>; atmosphere) gas lasers will be discussed. Several new high pressure gas lasers produced by the application of relativistic electron beams can be excited by high energy proton beams as well. These lasers, excimer, charge exchange and energy exchange types, have a unique common denominator. They all depend on the number of atomic ions produced at the outset by the electron beam. Therefore, in principle, the more ionization produced, the higher will be the laser power density. MeV proton beams, traversing gaseous medium, have shorter mean free paths in comparison with electron beams of the same energy. The stopping powers of gases are much larger for protons compared to that of electrons. Therefore, protons deposit more energy per unit volume compared to electrons of the same energy, and hence create more ion pairs. Higher laser power densities will result from the application of MeV proton beams in contrast with MeV electron beams. The kinetics of a new high pressure charge exchange laser, in a gaseous mixture of He and 0
₂
, will be discussed. Its gain coefficient will be calculated under MeV proton beam pumping scheme indicating the possibility of a new high power laser.