Research and investigation of gas-dynamic lasers. Final report, 10 February--10 October 1971

Chemical mixing laser investigations were conducted (1) to investigate the properties of a bimolecular exchange laser system pumped by the H + Cl$sub 2$ yields HCl(v) + Cl reaction, initiated by arc dissociated H$sub 2$, with lasing occurring between lambda = 3.4 and 4.0 $mu$, and (2) to establish the feasibility of an atom recombination transfer laser employing recombination of arc dissociated nitrogen with subsequent transfer of vibrational energy to CO$sub 2$ for lasing at 10.6 $mu$. Diagnostic and analytical results showed that the reaction mechanism during mixing, a back reaction of HCl(v) with H atoms, reaction of Cl with H$sub 2$(v), moderately fast V-V, V-T processes, and possible HCl(o) initial contaminant level, are among the key features which may explain the low level of performance. Atom recombination transfer experiments employed quenching of arc-dissociated N$sub 2$ in a plenum wherein transit of recombined N$sub 2$ is fast relative to N$sub 2$ vibrational decay at the quenched temperature. Nitrogen-CO$sub 2$ thermal mixing laser studies were extended to measure the efficiency of transfer of recombination energy in a nonequilibrium N$sub 2$ source to 10.6 $mu$ optical energy. (auth)