Xenon and hydrogen gas mixtures as laser active media

It is suggested that gaseous mixtures of xenon and molecular hydrogen may be used as active media of Xe2 (172 nm) and XeH ( ~ 250 nm) photochemical lasers. By adding more than 3 Torr of hydrogen to xenon, amplification can be achieved in the 172 nm range as a result of quenching of the 1u/0u− absorbing state under optical pumping conditions. The hydrogen atoms produced by the quenching process can be utilized to populate XeH* by three-body recombination with Xe* ( 3P1/2) atoms.