CO chain-reaction chemical laser. I. Experimental

Abstract

A chain-reaction CO chemical laser fueled by carbon monosulfide (CS) and molecular oxygen (O2) has been demonstrated. Initiation by the chain carriers (either O or S atoms) is necessary; the chain lenght λ* increases rapidly with the CS/CS2 fuel mole ratio, reaching a value λ*?10 at CS/CS2=1.57. Mass flow efficiencies up to 67 kJ/1b have been measured with a small-scale subsonic device, and laser operation has been observed up to 64-Torr cavity pressure. Gain measurements and subsonic mixing effects have been investigated. This work was made possible by developing a thermoelectric CS gas generator, which is also described.

Chemical co lasers based on carbon-disulfide flame

“…It is easy to use formula (4.2) to verify that the cutoff of laser emission of CO is defined by the number v --5 for flames with T -.~ 1000 K; if N20 is added, the flame temperature can decrease by 200 K, and the spectrum of lasing can be expanded to transitions with v = 4. This is consistent with experimental data on the laser-radiation spectra [34,3]. In chemical CO lasers with an additive of N20, the widest band in the spectra of lasing is 5.1-5.7 #m and involves 35-40 vibrational-rotational transitions.…”

cw 1→0 CO chemical laser: Optical pumping of CO

“…29, No.4, 15 August 1976 the first several centimeters of the 50-cm cell, an additional set of measurements was obtained for a 3 -cm celL The absorption data were analyzed as before but with N4 assumed negligible since reliable measurements on the 5 -4 and 6 -5 bands could not be obtained below 0068 kPa (5 Torr). The 1/1 0 values obtained at 0.54 kPa (4 Torr) were: 0.195 for P2 (12); 0.686 for P 3 (12); and 0,99 for P 4 (13). The results for the 50-cm and 3-cm cells are presented in Table II.…”

“…Additional discrimination was provided by monochromators prior to both probe beam detectors. The probe laser was usually operated on P v (12) transitions; these transitions are normally ab- sent in the CL output spectrum. The absence of the probe laser transition in the chemical laser output spectrum is desirable since small coupling of the noisy CL output into the probe laser detection system caused serious degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio of the probe measurement.…”