Gas-Dispersed Active Medium for High-Energy HF/DF Laser Systems Based on a Photon-Branched Chain Reaction

摘要

A promising avenue in the development of pulsed chemical HF/DF lasers and amplifiers is the utilization of a photon-branched chain reaction initiated in a two-phase active medium, I.e., a medium containing a working gas and ultradispersed passivated metal particles. These particles are evaporated under the action of IR laser radiation, which results in the appearance of free atoms, their diffusion into the gas, and the development of the photon-branching process. The key obstacle here is the formation a relatively-large volume (in excess of 10~3 cm~3) of the stable active medium, and filling this volume homogeneously for a short time with a sub-micron monodispersed metal aerosol, which has specified properties. In this manuscript, results are presented for an extensive study of a gas-dispersed component of a H_2-F_2 laser active medium, including novel techniques for the formation of a two-phase active medium with specified properties; aerosol optics; degradation of the dispersed component; and beam stability of a chemically-active aerosol. These results should help lead the way to creating powerful, reliable and inexpensive self-contained pulsed sources of coherent radiation with high energy, high laser beam quality, and the possibility of scaling up the output energy.