  Atomic vapor of four different paramagnetic species: gold, silver, lithium,
and rubidium, is produced and studied inside several buffer gases: helium,
nitrogen, neon, and argon. The paramagnetic atoms are injected into the buffer
gas using laser ablation. Wires with diameters 25 $\mu$m, 50 $\mu$m, and 100
$\mu$m are used as ablation targets for gold and silver, bulk targets are used
for lithium and rubidium. The buffer gas cools and confines the ablated atoms,
slowing down their transport to the cell walls. Buffer gas temperatures between
20 K and 295 K, and densities between $10^{16}$ cm$^{-3}$ and $2\times10^{19}$
cm$^{-3}$ are explored. Peak paramagnetic atom densities of $10^{11}$ cm$^{-3}$
are routinely achieved. The longest observed paramagnetic vapor density decay
times are 110 ms for silver at 20 K and 4 ms for lithium at 32 K. The
candidates for the principal paramagnetic-atom loss mechanism are impurities in
the buffer gas, dimer formation and atom loss on sputtered clusters.
