Chemical process yielding stimulating emission of visible radiation via fast near resonant energy transfer

Claim 1

A chemical process yielding stimulated emission of visible radiation via fast rear resonant intermolecular energy transfer comprising the steps of: (a) providing a first source of vapor selected from the group consisting of metal or semimetal vapor to be reacted with an appropriate reactant to produce a metastable excited state reaction product which serves as an energy storage medium; (b) providing a second source of atomic vapor selected from the group consisting of metal or semimetal vapor to serve as receptor atoms to receive the energy from said metastable excited state of the reaction product; (c) providing a source of reactant to react with the first source of vapor in a highly exothermic reaction which liberates energy exceeding 2.5 eV; said reactant being selected from the group consisting of ozone, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and halides; (d) chemically reacting the reactant and the first source of vapor to form metastable states of a final reaction product; (e) transferring energy stored in the metastable states of the said reaction product to the second source of atomic vapor serving as receptor atoms by means of near resonant energy transfer to form electronically excited receptor atoms in a population inversion relative to a lower level of excitation of said receptor atoms; and (f) providing a mirror configuration having first and second mirrors and windows associated with said mirrors, wherein said mirrors are chosen such that < g.sub.1 g.sub.2 <1, where g 1 =l-L/r 1 g 2 =1-L/r 2 L=separation between the mirrors (cavity length) r 1 =radius of curvature of said first mirror r 2 =radius of curvature of said second mirror L<r 1 and L<r 2 , said first and second mirrors being placed on opposite ends of an enclosed amplification zone such that the inverted population and multiple reflections allows for oscillation via the repeated passage of light through the inverted gain medium operative at the wavelength of the amplified transition associated with the population inversion created among the energy levels of the receptor atoms in a stable cavity configuration, said windows being operative in the wavelength ranges for the transition of the amplifying medium defined by the length of the cavity and radii of curvature of said mirrors, and said mirror configuration causing light associated with the amplified transition to undergo multiple passes through the inverted gain medium yielding oscillation of stimulated emission of visible radiation.