Heavy ion beam pumped lasers.

Particle beams with energy per particle ranging from a few keV to greater than 1 GeV have been used to pump gas lasers. Well-focused high energy heavy ion beams have a short range, low range straggling and high specific energy loss which increases with the square of the effective charge. They can be used to pump a small cylindrical volume which can be well-matched to the optical axis of a laser resonator. Results obtained to date are described with both cw and pulsed particle beams; and possible extensions using heavy ion storage rings considered.