Rami Arieli: "The Laser Adventure" Chapter 6, Metal Vapor Lasers, page 1
6-1-2 Metal Vapor Laser

As the name implies, the active medium in this laser is a vapor consisting of metal atoms. There is a distinction between two types:

  1. Neutral metal vapor lasers, which include:
    1. Copper vapor laser (CVL).
    2. Gold Vapor Laser (GVL).
  2. Ionized metal vapor laser, which includes:
      3. Helium-Cadmium (He-Cd) Laser.
All metal vapor lasers emit visible electromagnetic radiation in a form of rapid pulses and with high efficiency.

We shall concentrate on Copper Vapor Laser as an example for neutral vapor lasers.