No abstract

Performance characteristics are reported for a transverse-flow, oxygen-iodine chemical laser which operates at a low level (8 m/s) of linear flow gas velocity using a small size vacuum pump. This is the first time that dependences of laser output power have experimentally been found on Cl2 and I2 flow rates. Output powers in excess of 10 W have been efficiently extracted from a 50×0.5-cm rectangular flow duct. A total energy of 11 kJ from one gram of iodine has been obtained. The reaction mechanisms associated with the power decrease in high concentrations of I2 are carefully discussed.