GB1325809A - Combustion powered chemical laser and method - Google Patents

Abstract

1325809 Lasers THIOKOL CHEMICAL CORP 26 Oct 1971 [29 Dec 1970] 49647/71 Heading H1C A gas laser uses the efflux from a solid fuel rocket motor as an active medium. The efflux contains species such as N 2 , CO and HCl in excited states which transfer their energy to CO 2 in the efflux, the excited CO 2 being the lasing species. Fig. 4 shows a motor 50 containing an oxidizer such as ammonium perchlorate and a hydrocarbon such as polybutadiene-acrylonitrile, the reaction products exhausting through a rectangular converging nozzle 53 into an atmospheric pressure duct 52. A beam from a separate laser 54 is amplified by its passage through the exhaust, as may be shown by measuring the beam intensity before and after the motor, at detectors 68 and 70. Other fuels include carbon black and anthracene; polypropylene glycol is an alternative to the hydrocarbons. The exhaust nozzle may be a single slot, or an array of smaller adjacent slots, Figs. 5 and 6 (not shown). The laser whose beam is amplified may be a CO 2 laser. The exhaust may pass inside the resonator of this laser, Fig. 7 (not shown), instead of outside it. In Fig. 8 the separate laser is not used, and the exhaust gas forms a laser generator with resonator mirrors 56 and 74. Modulation of the laser outputs is obtainable using a chopper in the cavity. Nozzle details, operating temperatures and pressures are given.