Strontium vapour laser with a pulse repetition rate of up to 1 MHz

For the first time it has been shown that the pulse repetition rate of the lasers on the self-terminating transitions of metal atoms may be as high as similar to 1 MHz. The highest pulse repetition rate equal to similar to 830 kHz was realised on self-terminating IR transitions in Sr I atoms (lambda = 6.456 mu m and similar to 3 mu m) and in Sr II ions (lambda similar to 1 mu m) in a strontium vapour laser operating in a self-heating pulse periodic regime. The energy yield of a Sr laser was found to be proportional to the energy input into the active medium in a wide range of excitation pulse repetition frequencies; in this case, the average total specific output laser power is equal to 30-40 mW cm(-3).