US 4,056,789 AGranted

Electric discharge gas dynamic laser

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy

InventorsJoseph A. Stregack, Bernard L. Wexler

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Abstract

An electric discharge gas dynamic laser in which excitation of one gas species is obtained in a plenum by use of a dc glow discharge. The gas present in the plenum is then accelerated through an array of supersonic nozzles where the laser species is injected and mixed with the primary flow. Energy transfer and lasing occur in the supersonic region of the flow. Brewster-angle windows which extend from 1 to 28 cm downstream from the nozzle exit plane enables a laser cavity or diagnostic apparatus to be positioned at a variable distance downstream from the injection point. The optics may be mounted on a motor-driven translation table so that continuous scans of the region downstream of the nozzle exit plane may be conveniently made. The present facility may easily be operated with a subsonic cavity, with an RF discharge to augment the dc plenum discharge, with all gases premixed, or with any combination of these configurations.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A CW laser system which comprises:

a housing,
said housing including a plenum section, a nozzle array section, and a constant area supersonic flow region,
said plenum section including gas inlet for introducing an intermediate gas, and a plurality of conductive pins, said conductive pins extending axially toward said array and connected electrically to a dc power supply,
said nozzle array section including a plurality of side-by-side noncontoured wedge shaped nozzles positioned to form a nozzle throat therebetween and connected electrically to ground,
said nozzles including a plurality of gas outlet openings along their height downstream from the throat through which a lasing gas flows, and an inlet through which said lasing gas enters said nozzles;
a plenum chamber to which each of said nozzle inlets are connected for supplying said lasing gas to said nozzles;
a pump for pumping gases along the length of said housing from said plenum section and said nozzles;
oppositely disposed windows in said housing extending downstream from the plane of said nozzle throat and positioned at Brewster's angle along the supersonic flow region;
and
a fully reflective spherical mirror opposite one window and a partially reflective mirror opposite the other window, whereby an optical cavity whose axis is transverse to the gas flow is formed between said mirrors and said mirrors are axially movable along the length of said windows.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.