The electrophysical process in the discharge circuit of a copper vapor laser (CVL) is investigated. It is shown that the pumping of the active medium of a CVL in gas-discharge tubes (GDT) with electrodes located in cold buffer zones is carried out in two stages. At the first (preparatory) stage, the capacitive components of the laser discharge circuit are charged from the storage capacitor, and at the second stage, the active medium is directly pumped. The transition from the preparatory stage to the pumping stage is carried out as a result of a breakdown. It is shown that breakdown is a transient process of discharge development from a glowing to a non-thermal arc discharge and is characterized by a sharp change in the cathode potential drop across the GDT. The inductance of the discharge circuit is a factor that determines the efficiency of pumping the active medium since the release of the energy stored in the inductance at the preparatory stage provides heating of the cathode spot and determines the conditions for the occurrence of thermal emission of electrons from the GDT cathode.

研究了铜蒸汽激光器 (CVL) 放电电路中的电物理过程。结果表明，在具有位于冷缓冲区的电极的气体放电管 (GDT) 中，CVL 的活性介质的泵送分两个阶段进行。在第一（准备）阶段，激光放电电路的电容元件由存储电容器充电，在第二阶段，活性介质被直接泵浦。从准备阶段到泵送阶段的过渡是由于故障而进行的。结果表明，击穿是放电发展从辉光到非热电弧放电的瞬态过程，其特征是 GDT 上阴极电势降的急剧变化。