Studies On The NCl(a)/I All Gas-phase Iodine Laser

The concept of All Gas-phase Iodine Laser (AGIL) was presented to improve the volume-efficiency and weight-efficiency of the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) and make COIL suitable to some applications of gravity- independent. In this paper the current AGIL, NCl(a)-I laser, was studied using the reaction of hydrogen azide, HN₃, with Cl atoms produced directly by microwave discharge of Cl₂/He or indirectly by reaction of DCl and F atoms generated by direct current discharge of NF3/He to produce the energy carrier, NCl(a). Obvious energy transfer between NCl(a) and ground state of iodine atom, I(2P₃/2), and a weak small signal gain were obtained using microwave discharge of Cl₂/He as Cl atoms source. Using reaction of DCl and F atoms produced by direct current discharge of NF3/He to generate Cl atoms, an obvious small signal gain of 10-4cm-1 and a good preparation for a ture all gas-phase chemical iodine laser based on F atom generator used in current HF/DF laser were obtained. A numerical simulation for the estimate of small signal gain and output power was finished and the results show that the Cl density is a key factor for the small signal gain and the NCl(a) self-quenching is an important effect on the production and transport of NCl(a) and the output power. In the experimental process we were aware of that the quick preparation, highly-effcient storage, usage at large flow rate and safty of HN₃ become crucial factors for the development of current AGIL based on HN₃. A simple and quick method for HN₃ production was built up using oleic acid instead of stearic acid to react with NaN₃. The effect of some usual factors such as spark, illumination and heat on the stability of HN₃ was also studied and the results show that HN₃ is very sensitive to spark, but is stable under the illumination of visible light or heating at temperature less than 530K.