Lasers based on selenium 1S0 metastable atoms

We have investigated the laser performance of the 1S0–1D2 and 1S0–3P1 electric‐dipole‐forbidden transitions of the ground configuration of selenium atoms using 172 nm photolysis of OCSe to produce large concentrations of Se(1S). With complete dissociation of OCSe the Se(1S) atoms are quenched by photoelectrons and Se(3P) atoms, both undesired products of the photolysis. The quenching by electrons is removed and the laser performance is greatly improved by employing small concentrations of SF6 for electron attachment. At optimized conditions, we have obtained a laser output on both transitions corresponding to 0.3 photons for each OCSe molecule initially in the laser volume. We have also investigated the effects on the lasers of collision broadening and collision‐induced emission and have demonstrated XeSe and KrSe collision‐induced lasers operating at wavelengths near the Se(1S0–1D2) transition.