Experimental study of continuous wave hydrogen-fluoride chemical laser overtone performance

The overtone lasing performance of the supersonic continuous wave hydrogen-fluoride chemical laser at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was optimized by the same set of flow rates that optimized the fundamental performance. When the absorption/scattering losses of the mirrors were taken into account, an overtone efficiency (the ratio of overtone power to maximum fundamental power for the same flow conditions) of 70-90% was achieved. The overtone efficiency was a strong function of medium saturation. There was no significant change in overtone power and efficiency as the mode volume increased. However, there was an increase in the number of lasing lines and a shift to higher rotational (J) lines. Overtone performance was as sensitive to cavitypressure as fundamental performance was

[1]  L. Sentman,et al.  Modeling CW HF fundamental and overtone lasers , 1989 .

[2]  J. Gordon,et al.  Confocal multimode resonator for millimeter through optical wavelength masers , 1961 .

[3]  J A McKay,et al.  Development of laser mirrors of very high reflectivity using the cavity-attenuated phase-shift method. , 1981, Applied optics.

[4]  D. Carroll,et al.  Maximizing output power of a low-gain laser system. , 1993, Applied optics.

[5]  Lee H. Sentman,et al.  An economical supersonic CW HF laser testbed , 1989 .

[6]  William Anthony Duncan,et al.  Hydrogen fluoride overtone chemical laser technology , 1989 .

[7]  D. Carroll.  Experimental and theoretical study of cw HF chemical laser overtone performance , 1992 .

[8]  J. Sollee,et al.  Recent progress in hydrogen fluoride overtone chemical lasers , 1991 .

[9]  L. Sentman,et al.  Saturation effects in a continuous-wave HF chemical laser , 1985 .

[10]  Gain medium considerations in the design of overtone chemical laser resonators , 1991 .

[11]  W. H. Carter,et al.  Spot size and divergence for Hermite Gaussian beams of any order. , 1980, Applied optics.

[12]  D. Carroll.  Effects of a nonhomogeneous gain saturation law on predicted performance of a high-gain and a low-gain laser systems. , 1994, Applied optics.

[13]  L. Sentman,et al.  SATURATION EFFECTS IN A CW HF CHEMICAL LASER. , 1984 .

[14]  W. Jeffers.  Short wavelength chemical lasers , 1989 .

[15]  G. D. Boyd,et al.  Generalized confocal resonator theory , 1962 .