We report on experiments investigating the optimization of laser-ablated plasmas which are used to produce recombination-pumped, short-wavelength lasers. We evaluate the density of electrons and neutral atoms in laser ablated lithium and carbon plasmas as a function of time and distance away from the ablated target surface. We use an interferometric technique which can reveal information about the temperature of the plasma electrons. We find that the cold electrons which result in gain in recombination-pumped lithium lasers on the Lyman-α transition are produced by the high-intensity pump pulse rather than the lower intensity ablating pulse.
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