Optically pumped continuously tunable high-pressure molecular lasers

Recent developments in the optical pumping of high-pressure molecular lasers, particularly continuously tunable high- pressure molecular lasers, are described. Included are some experimental results on optically pumped pure CO
2
lasers, optically pumped ultrahigh-pressure CO
2
-He lasers, and optically pumped N
2
O/CO
2
transfer lasers. Recent efforts to use the output from these devices for high-resolution infrared spectroscopy are also described.