Gain measurements in a shock tube-driven gas dynamic laser

Abstract

A shock tube-driven C01-N1-He gasdynamic laser employing a two-dimensional wedge nozzle is described. The gain produced due to the expansion of the laser gas mixture compressed and heated due to the shock-wave propagation is measured using a weak probe signal at 10.6um for various gas mixture compositions and shock Mach numbers The expected optimum gain from the laser system is estimated using the gam optimization analysis presented here The variation on the measured small-Signal gain shows a concordance matching trend with the predicted values for different gas compositions and system parameter combinations. A highest gain of 1.53 m-I is achieved for the gas composition of CO!'N2:He = 11.5:50:38 5(%). reservoir pressure, 5.8 atm, and temperature 1218 K.