The performance characteristics of single pass and multipass storage laser amplifiers are presented and compared. The effects of the multipass amplifier parameters on the extraction characteristics are examined. For a wide range of conditions the multipass amplifier is found to provide high energy gain and high efficiency simultaneously. This is a significant advantage over the single pass laser amplifier. Finally, three specific storage laser amplifier systems, flashlamp pumped V:MgF/sub 2/, XeF laser pumped Tm:Glass, and photolytically pumped Selenium, are examined. The performance characteristics for each of the three systems are calculated and compared.

A general purpose program for drift chamber studies is described. First the capacitance matrix is calculated using a Green's function technique. The matrix is used in a linear-least-squares fit to choose optimal operating voltages. Next the electric field is computed, and given knowledge of gas parameters and magnetic field environment, a family of electron trajectories is determined. These are finally used to make drift distance vs time curves which may be used directly by a track reconstruction program. Results are compared with data obtained from the cylindrical chamber in the Axial Field Magnet experiment at the CERN ISR.