Effects of Injection of Various Gases on the Gain Characteristics of a Supersonic Flow CO Chemical Laser

Abstract

Experimental studies are conducted on a supersonic flow CO chemical laser to obtain data on the reaction zone structure and the small signal gain coefficients when various gas additives are injected at the reactant interface. The additives are Ar, O₂, N₂O and CO. It is shown that the chemiluminescence from the laser cavity and the flow structure do not depend strongly on the kind of injected species, although the injection of gas additives considerably enhances the mixing. On the other hand, the measured small signal gain coefficients depend strongly on the injected species. The injection of O₂ leads to the higher gains than that of Ar since the formation of the vibrationally excited CO molecules is promoted. The injection of N₂O and CO also raises the gains due to the favorable effects of VV transfer.