Efficient pulsed chemical laser

Abstract

Output pulse observations are presented for a helium-diluted CO2 laser pumped by VV (vibration-vibration) energy transfer from vibrationally excited DF produced by the D2–F2 chain reaction. Flash photolysis of the F2 served to initiate the reaction. A 290-cm3 reaction chamber containing a 0.5-atm mixture with mole ratio D2:F2:CO2:He = 0.33:1:8:10 gave a single-pulse output energy of 2.8 J. Relative to the amount of D2 present in the reaction chamber, this corresponds to a chemical efficiency greater than 5%.

High performance DF-CO2 chain-reaction laser

“…The problem of photolysis initiation of pulsed DF-C0 2 transfer lasers has been studied by a number of investigators.…”

“…Interest in pumping a CO 2 laser by use of the D 2 -F 2 chain reaction is motivated both by the simplicity of photolytic initiation compared with e-beam-controlled excitation and by the possibility of high energy-density output. In a recent demonstration, Basov objective of the present investigation.…”