Abstract: A metal vapor laser which has an optical cavity, and a sputtering cell arranged at one end. The sputtering cell has a sputtering surface for sputtering metal deposited on the surface or from which the surface is formed. A gas stream is introduced into the cavity for entraining the sputtered metal into a metal vapor beam and the gas stream is introduced such that the gas stream flows substantially parallel to at least a part of the sputtering surface to ensure that the passage for introducing the gas is aligned correctly relative to the sputtering surface, there is provided an insulative ring formed in two portions defining the passage therebetween and the first portion of the ring is moveable with respect to the second portion thereof to align a passage. Two sources of gas are provided for forming the gas stream and are selectively switched so that each source of gas can be selectively coupled to the cavity for forming a gas stream of a particular variety of gas.

Abstract: A metal vapour laser is disclosed having an optical cavity with a sputtering cathode and anode located at one end of the cavity. The sputtering cathode and anode includes a gaseous jet inlet to introduce a gas stream of inert gas into the optical cavity for entraining metal vapour sputtered by the sputtering cathode and anode. An electrical discharge separate to the sputtering cathode and anode is provided in the optical cavity for exciting the metal vapour entrained in the inert gas stream.