A laser in which four energy levels are involved. The disadvantage of a three-level laser is that it is difficult to attain population inversion because many molecules have to be raised from their ground state to an excited state by pumping. In a four-level laser, the laser transition finishes in an initially unoccupied state F, having started in a state I, which is not the ground state. As the state F is initially unoccupied, any population in I constitutes population inversion. Thus laser action is possible if I is sufficiently metastable. If transitions from F to the ground state G are rapid, population inversion is maintained since this lowers the population in F caused by the transition in the laser action.