This review devotes its major attention to analyzing the physical processes that govern the stability of uniform burning of the volume gas discharges that are used to excite high-pressure CO$_2$ lasers. An analysis is given of the theoretical and experimental studies that have shown a substantial increase in the time of uniform burning of a non-self-sustaining gas discharge as the electric power density is decreased. Specificially, this has made it possible to convert the discharge in practice into a steady-state burning regime at elevated gas pressure. The optical characteristics of gas mixtures based on carbon dioxide that are established upon excitation of the medium by a steady-state non-self-sustaining discharge are examined.

@article{Velikhov:1977,
	author = {E. P. Velikhov and V. D. Pis’mennyi and A. T. Rakhimov},
	title = {The non-self-sustaining gas discharge for exciting continuouswave gas lasers},
	publisher = {Physics-Uspekhi},
	year = {1977},
	journal = {Phys. Usp.},
	volume = {20},
	number = {7},
	pages = {586-602},
	url = {https://ufn.ru/en/articles/1977/7/b/},
	doi = {10.1070/PU1977v020n07ABEH005445}
}