CHEMICAL CW LASERS WITH AN EXTENDED ACTIVE MEDIUM
I. A. Fedorov, S. V. Konkin, V. K. Rebone, M. A. Rotinyan, A. A. Belyaev, and Yu. P. Maksimov UDC 621.378:535 We consider the principal results of the investigations of the last few years on increasing the lasing length of supersonic continuous chemical HF lasers by additionally diluting the active medium with an inert gas by feeding helium into different regions of the nozzle and active medium. The investigations were carried out with the use of models of HF lasers equipped with nozzle units of three different designs based on a three-jet scheme of mixing components. In the course of the investigations, active media with a length of up to 12.5 cm with a high optical quality providing high energy characteristics of the laser have been obtained, and for the first time a large-aperture output beam with a cross section close to a square one measuring 10 x 11 cm has been realized. Russian Scientific Center "Applied Chemistry," St. Petersburg, Russia; email: polya@mail.ru. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 75, No. 2, pp. 177-184, March-April, 2002. Original article submitted May 4, 2001. JEPTER7492020022 JEPTER749202