Abstract
Pulsed chemical lasers (PCLs) based on the reaction between H2 or D2 and F2 are attractive due to their large specific energy output and potential for high electrical efficiency (>100%) due to the chain nature of the pumping reactions. The active lasing molecules are either the direct reaction products, HF (3 μm) and DF (4 μm) , or CO2 molecules (10.6 μm) in a DF CO2 transfer laser. Pulse lengths of PCLs are typically a few microseconds with the range depending on specific operating parameters of the laser. The pulse length-specific energy products for reported DF and DF CO2 lasers tend to be fixed at ~100-300 μs J/liter. Longer pulse lengths are only achieved by sacrificing specific energy. However, there are many applications where a longer pulse length could be desirable due to nonlinear optical phenomena associated with beam propagation. In addition, longer pulses would permit smaller laser designs since larger laser fluences would be permitted on the optics before damage occurs.
© 1990 Optical Society of America
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