Abstract
This letter describes a new laser operating on the B2Σ+1/2X2Σ+1/2 band of HgCl at 5576 Å. Pumping was achieved by high‐intensity electron‐beam excitation of high‐pressure rare‐gas mixtures containing small amounts of Hg and CCl4. A lower bound to the efficiency was determined to be 0.5% in an unoptimized configuration, and higher efficiency is expected.