2006 Volume 49 Issue 4 Pages 1212-1219
The quality and power of an extracted beam from a Q-switched supersonic flow chemical oxygen-iodine laser have been investigated by numerical simulation. The flow system adopted in this study is the throat-mixing system proposed in a previous paper. Three-dimensional calculation for optics is coupled with one-dimensional calculation for gas flow including chemical reactions. Both geometric and wave optics are calculated and compared to assess the effects of diffraction. Wave optics is calculated with a time-dependent paraxial wave equation. The results indicate that wave and geometric optics are qualitatively similar in the time-dependent behavior of beam power. Quantitatively, it is found that diffraction reduces the extracted power by 9%. It is also found from the spreading half-angle of the beam for wave optics that the beam quality at a maximum power is equivalent to that of a plane wave; however, it is lower than that of continuous extraction.
JSME international journal. Ser. 1, Solid mechanics, strength of materials
JSME international journal. Ser. A, Mechanics and material engineering
JSME international journal. Ser. 3, Vibration, control engineering, engineering for industry
JSME international journal. Ser. C, Dynamics, control, robotics, design and manufacturing
JSME International Journal Series A Solid Mechanics and Material Engineering