AbstractWe report on the experimental investigations on a laser‐like low pressure argon gas discharge. The discharge parameters varied in the range from 0,05 to 1 Torr for the gas pressure and from 10 to 30 A for the discharge current.Local electron densities and temperatures have been measured with an adjustable spherical probe.Spatially resolved measurements of the temperatures and drift velocities of the Ar+‐ions in the radial and axial direction of the positive column have been carried out by the resonant laser light scattering (fluorescence technique).The radial density profiles of the excited Ar+‐ions have been determined in two different ways and have been compared with the calculations based on a simple collisional radiative