Abstract

It would be possible to develop purely chemical high power pulsed laser systems based on so called photon branching chain reactions. In such type of reactions induced emission of photons in the course of the chain reaction exceeds their expense to initiate the reaction. In our works a well-argued and fundamentally new way to bring about photon branching chain reactions, based on nonresonant interaction between IR laser radiation and dispersed chemically active media, has been advanced. It consists in introducing finely dispersed particles (e.g. passivated metal particles) into the active medium of HF or DF - CO2 laser. The heating under the action of IR laser radiation causes the evaporation of particles and initiation of the chain reaction (Me + F2 = MeF + F).

© 1996 IEEE