Lasers

Generalised scaling of an electrogasdynamic CO combustion-product laser

I. Ya. Baranov

Baltic State Technical University, St. Petersburg

Abstract: A method is proposed for generalised scaling of a CO laser with a high-frequency discharge in a supersonic stream of combustion products. This laser can operate efficiently without an electron gun and without continuous formation of large amounts of the CO mixture. A theoretical analysis, based on simultaneous solution of a system of equations describing the kinetics of relaxation proceses and gas dynamics, does not yield the explicit parametric dependences of the main parameters of a CO laser. However, acceptable assumptions can be made and these allow the use of general similarity laws for the scaling of a cw electric-discharge CO laser with a high-velocity stream of a mixture of CO and monatomic gases. The results of such scaling can be generalised to a CO mixture, produced by the combustion of a chemical fuel, by calculations of the energy balance of electrons in a discharge that takes place in combustion products. After the determination of the fraction of the electric-field energy acquired by the vibrational levels of the CO molecules, the main parameters of an electrogasdynamic CO combustion-product laser can be calculated with the aid of similarity laws derived for cw CO lasers with electric-discharge excitation of a high-velocity stream of a mixture of CO and monatomic gases.

PACS: 42.55.Ks, 42.60.Lh, 42.60.By

Received: 30.11.1993
Revised: 12.05.1994

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 1994, 24:8, 673–676

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