Computer Simulation of cw HF Chemical Laser Unstable Resonator Performance.

Abstract

Inadequacies in the treatment of the fluid dynamic mixing that were not apparent in Fabry-Perot or stable resonator models were revealed with a wave optics unstable resonator model. The unstable resonator data as a function of resonator size and size of the laser were shown to provide a severe test of a couples, wave optics, chemical kinetic, fluid dynamic model of a chemical laser. A mechanism for the observed time-dependent oscillations that occur on lines whose saturated gain does not fill the unstable resonator was proposed. According to the proposed mechanism, the time-dependent oscillations are the result of a competition between chemical pumping and radiative deactivation of upper laser levels of HF. The oscillations occur only if the media is not strongly coupled to the optical fields diffractively or geometrically. Computer calculations supported the proposed mechanism and new unstable resonator experiments were suggested.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA185059

Entities

People

  • J. O. Gilmore
  • L. H. Sentman

Organizations

  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude Modulation
  • Chemical Kinetics
  • Chemical Lasers
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Computer Simulations
  • Diameters
  • Dissociation
  • Dynamics
  • Flow
  • Flow Fields
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fresnel Zones
  • Geometry
  • Laser Resonators
  • Modulation
  • Optomechanics
  • Three Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy