Chemistry of I( 2 P 1/2 ) excitation in a hybrid catalytic electric-discharge oxygen-iodine laser

The chemistry of electric discharge driven oxygen iodine lasers (EOIL) has long been believed to have O 2 (a 1 u g ) as the sole energy carrier for excitation of the lasing state I( 2 P 1/2 ), and O( 3 P) as the primary quencher of this state. In many sets of experimental measurements over a wide range of conditions, we have observed persistent evidence to the contrary. In this paper, we examine comparisons of kinetics analysis and model predictions to experimental results from a supersonic EOIL research reactor. This analysis leads to identification of important additional production and loss terms for the lasing species, I( 2 P 1/2 ), in the EOIL reaction mechanism. These mechanisms are also relevant to the catalytically enhanced EOIL excitation mechanism. Exploitation of this chemistry can lead to substantial increases in gain and power extraction efficiency in larger-scale EOIL systems. The analysis points to a significantly higher level of understanding of this energetic chemical system, which can support application of advanced concepts in power scaling investigations.