Relaxation processes in the discharge used in a copper halide laser

A spectrographic investigation was made of the radiation emitted from pulse discharges in mixtures of CuBr and CuI with Ne and He. The dependence of the relative intensity of the molecular spectrum on the discharge conditions and the time characteristics of the deexcitation of the resonance and laser lines of Cu _I were determined. Prolonged afterglow due to the 3d¹⁰nx–3d¹⁰ 4p² P⁰_3/2,1/2 and 3d¹⁰nx–4s^{2 2}D_3/2,5/2 in Cu _I was observed. The possibility that the discharge contraction was due to an increase in the importance of the dissociative recombination processes was considered. It was concluded that cooling of electrons played an important role in the deactivation of the metastable states of Cu _I.