TABLE OF CONTENTS A brief review of the structures and operation of gas lasers of particular interest in photobiology is given in this chapter along with details of their emission characteristics. Gas lasers provide laser wavelengths over a very broad range from the vacuum UV to the far-IR in continuous wave and pulsed operation and from low to high powers. Many of these wavelengths have found valuable application in photobiology, particularly in the several forms of fluorescence technique, microscopy, imaging and Raman spectroscopy, as well as in such techniques as optical trapping and tweezers, micromanipulation and microdissection. Extensive use has been made of the He-Ne laser (wavelength 632.8 nm), argon ion laser (488.0 and 514.5 nm), krypton ion (647.1 nm), He-Cd laser (441.6 and 325.0 nm), excimer lasers (ArF 193 nm, KrF 248 nm, XeCl 308 nm) and nitrogen laser (337.1 nm). The ion and excimer lasers have application in the pumping of tunable dye and titanium-sapphire lasers. Since the discovery of the first gas laser in 1961 many gas lasers have been devised, a detailed understanding built up of their operation and performance and the commercial technology has reached a highly developed and mature state.
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