VIBRATIONAL KINETICS OF CO2 MOLECULES IN GAS-DISCHARGE WITH HIGH SPECIFIC INPUT POWER

Investigations of active media of compact, waveguide CO2 lasers having high specific energy parameters (exceeding by about two orders the co rresponding power in common CO2 lasers), and unique spectral character istics, are indisputably of interest. The first-order approximations o f the parameters of such lasers are usually obtained from the results of numerous investigations of the active media in wide tubes, under th e premises that the gas discharges are similar. The output power calcu lated in such a way turned out to be appreciably larger (up to an orde r of magnitude) than the real one. Plasmochemical processes are assume d to play a large role. This fact results in an increased density of t he oxygen atoms, which influence the relaxation of the asymmetric mode of CO2, the presence of noticeable amounts of negative ions and redis tribution of the electron density over the radius, and the presence of an ion component of the current. Systematic investigations of the dis tributions of CO2 molecules over the vibrational-rotational levels at various laser mixture pressures and discharge currents are described i n this paper. A theoretical analysis of vibrational kinetics of CO2 mo leculse was carried out on this basis.