A continuous-wave (CW), ultraviolet triply-optically-pumped atomic laser (TOPAL) is disclosed. The inventive laser device includes a laser active media comprising a mixture of a neutral atomic vapor and one or more buffer gases. The gain mixture is placed within a segmented gain cell, allowing for periodic, selected spectral filtering of deleterious ASE transitions; the segmented gain cell, in turn, is placed within an optical cavity with a high Q at a specified ultraviolet wavelength, and is successively, resonantly excited by three drive pump lasers, in three energy-contiguous visible/IR electric-dipole allowed transitions, producing a steady-state electron population inversion density between a high-lying electronic energy level and the ground electronic level, and producing laser emission on a UV transition (within the spectral range ˜230 to ˜370 nm) terminating on the ground electronic level.
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