Experimental diagnostics of an avalanche discharge excited HgBr/HgBr2dissociation laser

We have investigated the effects of discharge power and nitrogen partial pressure on small signal gain, fluorescence, and discharge driver efficiency for an avalanche discharge Ne/N
2
/HgBr
2
laser. This work helps clarify the role of nitrogen in these lasers, as well as presenting the first experimental evidence for bottlenecking in the HgBr laser. An optimum intrinsic laser efficiency of 2.0 percent is also reported.