Some features of the use of a mixture of H2-He gases as the active medium of an optically pumped laser

An analysis is made of the conditions for lasing as a result of the 2??2? transition in the HEH* excimer subjected to optical pumping. It is shown that the gain of an H2?He mixture can reach ~ 5 ? 10?2 cm?1. Such a mixture is thermally stable and can be heated to 6 ? 103 K. The specific output energy is then ~ 5 kJ/g or ~ 5 J/cm3.