Abstract
This letter reports e‐beam‐sustained discharge excitation of HgCl and HgBr lasers operating on the green and blue‐green B2Σ+1/2X2Σ+1/2 bands in 2‐atm mixtures of Ar/Hg/Cl2 and Ar/Hg/BrCCl3. The excitation channel appears to be through the reaction of Hg(3P) metastable atoms with the halogen‐containing species.