5.1 Introduction

This chapter examines the kinetics of plasmochemical processes and the lasing mechanisms of various types of gas NPLs pumped using neutrons from pulsed nuclear reactors. The lasers considered here typically have Continuous Wave,

i. e. CW operation (or, more accurately, quasi-CW) lasing mechanisms, because the characteristic times of basic plasma processes are much less than the durations of pulsed reactor pumping pulses (>50 ps). To determine the lasing mechanism, it is necessary to ascertain the processes of populating and quenching both of the upper and of the lower lasing levels. Information about the specific features and the constants of the most important plasmochemical processes is contained in a number of studies (see [1—4], for example).