this invention relates to the field of lasers and in particular to the pump sources used in lasers . many existing lasers use linear flashlamps in order to create population inversion in the gain medium of the laser . such pump sources suffer from a number of drawbacks particularly when pumping dye lasers including explosive damage , long optical pulse length and inappropriate spectral emission . this invention provides a pump source for a laser which exploits the surface discharge phenomenon . a dielectric material which is in contract with a gas has electrical energy discharged across its surface in order to provide an electromagnetic emission which is then used to pump the gain medium . by varying the dielectric material or the cover gas used the surface emission can be used to pump the laser gain medium .