CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHASE INHOMOGENEITY AND OF NONEQUILIBRIUM OF THE ACTIVE MEDIUM BEYOND A 3-DIMENSIONAL EXPANSION NOZZLE ARRAY OF A GASDYNAMIC LASER

A numerical simulation was made of the three-dimensional structure of the flow and of nonequilibrium of the active medium beyond a three-dim ensional expansion nozzle array of a gasdynamic laser. The dependences of the optical homogeneity of the active medium, of the average integ ral radiation intensity in an aperture, and of the overall laser effic iency on the gas pressure at the nozzle edges and on the angle of enco unter of supersonic jets were derived for two nozzle array configurati ons: with preliminary mixing of the active components and with superso nic mixing beyond the nozzle array edge.