Experimental Observations and Calculated Band Strengths for the D2 Lyman Band Laser

Abstract

Experimental observations have been made of vacuum ultraviolet laser emission in the Lyman band of D₂. Fourteen lines from 1568 to 1614 Å have been measured to have a total peak power of nearly 1 MW in a short (∼ 1 nsec) pulse. To facilitate identification of the laser wavelengths, optical functions were calculated using the adiabatic correction to the usual Born‐Oppenheimer approximation. The theory predicts the most probable transitions and these wavelengths agree with experiment to within 0.1–0.2 Å.