Scale effects in a c-w HF chemical laser. Technical report

Technical Report · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:7194314

Sentman, L H; Carroll, D L; Theodoropoulos, P; Gumus, A

Scale effects when the size of a c-w HF chemical laser was reduced by a factor of two were studied experimentally and theoretically. When the saturated gains of the single-channel CL I laser and the two channel CL II laser were the same, the CL I power was 70-80% of the CL II power. This suggests that for only a 25% performance penalty, the size, weight, and gas requirements of a laser can be reduced by a factor of two. The power-spectral distributions of the CL I and CL II lasers, when the saturated gains were the same, were nearly identical. When the two lasers had the same cavity losses, the CL I power was an average of 45% of the CL II power. The Blaze II and MNORO3SR laser computer simulations gave good agreement with data as a function of mass flow rate, cavity losses, pressure, and size of the laser. Time-dependent oscillations on lines whose saturated gain did not fill the unstable resonator had a period of 47 ns. These oscillations did not occur for Fresnel numbers less than 3.2 and their amplitudes increased as the fraction of the resonator filled by the saturated gain of the oscillating line decreased. A 7-ns oscillation, which was superimposed on top of the 47 ns oscillation, was probably a mode beat of the laser.

• Research Organization: Illinois Univ., Urbana (USA). Dept. of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
• OSTI ID: 7194314
• Report Number(s): AD-A-172503/5/XAB; AAE-86-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
AMPLIFICATION
AMPLIFIERS
CAVITIES
CHEMICAL LASERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
FLOW RATE
FLUIDS
GAIN
GASES
LASERS
LOSSES
POWER
RESONATORS
SATURATION
SCALING LAWS
SIMULATION