Tunable lasers for waste management photochemistry applications. [Dye lasers, excimer lasers, IR lasers]

A review of lasers with potential photochemical applications in waste management indicates that dye lasers, as a class, can provide tunable laser output through the visible and near-uv regions of the spectrum of most interest to photochemistry. Many variables can affect the performance of a specific dye laser, and the interactions of these variables, at the current state of the art, are complex. The recent literature on dye-laser characteristics has been reviewed and summarized, with emphasis on those parameters that most likely will affect the scaling of dye lasers in photochemical applications. Current costs are reviewed and correlated with output power. A new class of efficient uv lasers that appear to be scalable in both energy output and pulse rate, based on rare-gas halide excimers and similar molecules, is certain to find major applications in photochemistry. Because the most important developments are too recent to be adequately described in the literature or are the likely outcome of current experiments, the basic physics underlying the class of excimer lasers is described. Specific cost data are unavailable, but these new gas lasers should reflect costs similar to those of existing gas lasers, in particular, the pulsed CO/sub 2/ lasers. To complete themore » survey of tunable-laser characteristics, the technical characteristics of the various classes of lasers in the ir are summarized. Important developments in ir laser technology are being accelerated by isotope-separation research, but, initially at least, this portion of the spectrum is least likely to receive emphasis in waste-management-oriented photochemistry.« less