Chemical problems of high-power sealed-off carbon monoxide lasers

摘要

Abstract: Principal chemical reactions in the electric discharge CO-laser plasma, preventing the efficiency and output power increase, are analyzed. It was found that the negative influence of CO$-2$/-impurity is manifested due to the picking of CO-molecule vibration energy by CO$-2$/ molecules and following fast V-T relaxation of these molecules. The density of CO-molecules in plasma can be reduced by conversion of these molecules into radiating molecules on the surface of the plasma-activated carbon. The applied technique provided the fast chemical reactions that preserve CO molecules in the plasma. The conversion of oxygen-bearing impurities on carbon surface is used for cleaning and maintaining the optimum laser mixture in sealed-off electric discharge CO-lasers featuring high-efficiency and linear power. This technique turned out to be effective for producing a high-power multibeam laser with long-term laser mixture quality up-keep and can be useful for powerful electric discharge CO-lasers operating at fast flowing and room temperature cooling.!