Advances in High-Power Chemical Lasers,

Abstract

Chemical laser is characteristically energized by an exoergic chemical reaction which produces the necessary population inversion of lasing species. Based on the enormous chemical energy deposit, several kinds of chemical laser now deliver the cw power outputs of megawatt magnitude, far higher than any other lasers. Accordingly, along with the improvement of gas medium homogeneity and mode-selectivity of the optical cavity chemical laser has also attained high beam quality of a near diffraction-limited divergence angle. Recent efforts in developing new chemical laser have focused on the short wavelength chemical laser system, e. g. from the early DF (iota = 3. 8 micrometer) and HF (lambda = 2. 7 micrometer) to late O2(1) Delta)-1 (lambda = 1.315 micrometer) and HF overtone transition laser (approx. 13 micrometer). At present the community of chemical physics are much interested in the visible chemical laser which may be realized by stimulated emission of an electronic excited state. (jg)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 15, 1994
Accession Number
ADA289737

Entities

People

  • Sha Guoha

Organizations

  • National Air and Space Intelligence Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Chemical Lasers
  • Chemical Oxygen Iodine Lasers
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Continuous Waves
  • Deuterium Fluoride Lasers
  • Diffraction
  • Energy Transfer
  • Heat Energy
  • Laser Beams
  • Laser Guided Missiles
  • Lasers
  • Light (Electromagnetic Radiation)
  • Optomechanics
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics