Singlet oxygen generators - the heart of chemical oxygen iodine lasers: past, present, and future

Abstract

Since the initial demonstration of chemical oxygen iodine lasers in 1977, researchers have realized that the heart of the COIL system is the singlet oxygen generator. This drives the performance of the system in terms of output power, mass efficiency, engineering complexity, reliability and maintainability. For this reason the singlet oxygen generator has been the focus of intense research and development efforts over the last 30 years. This paper reports on the history of singlet oxygen generators -starting with the simple sparger design used in the initial COIL demonstration and ending with current jet or droplet generators used in laboratories around the world. The relative performance of the different generator types will naturally lead to performance goals for the research efforts of the future.

New concepts of realizing a chemical oxygen laser

“…[2][3][4][5] The necessity of utilizing the energy transfer is due to the fact that the direct oscillation of O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) is quite difficult because of its long excited-state lifetime (~72min) 6) giving an emission cross section several-orders of magnitude smaller than that of a typical laser. But if O 2 (O 2 ( 1 Δ g )) can give a laser oscillation, the laser system can be simpler since there is no necessity to mix O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) and I ( 2 P 3/2 ).…”

Experiment and Simulation on a New Swirl-Jet-Type Singlet Oxygen Generator

“…Hewett summarized the research history of SOG and thought that the SOG will still be a focus of research in the near future. 4 Figure 1 illustrates the operating principal of a COIL. A series of chemical reactions are used to produce excited atoms for subsequent lasing.…”

“…K.B. Hewett summarized the research history of SOG and thought that the SOG will still be a focus of research in the near future …”