Laser ignition

Patent · 31 December 2001

OSTI ID:874632

Early, James W ^[1]; Lester, Charles S ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos, NM
2. San Juan Pueblo, NM

In the apparatus of the invention, a first excitation laser or other excitation light source is used in tandem with an ignitor laser to provide a compact, durable, engine deployable fuel ignition laser system. The beam from the excitation light source is split with a portion of it going to the ignitor laser and a second portion of it being recombined with the first portion after a delay before injection into the ignitor laser. Reliable fuel ignition is provided over a wide range of fuel conditions by using a single remote excitation light source for one or more small lasers located proximate to one or more fuel combustion zones.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• Assignee: The Regents of the University of California (Los Alamos, NM)
• Patent Number(s): US 6428307
• OSTI ID: 874632
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/431/60/123/372/
apparatus
beam
combustion
combustion zone
compact
conditions
delay
deployable
durable
engine
excitation
excitation laser
excitation light
fuel
ignition
ignitor
injection
laser
lasers
light
light source
located
portion
provide
provided
proximate
range
recombined
reliable
remote
single
source
split
tandem
wide
wide range
zones