STUDY OF THE LIMITING ENERGY CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMBINED DISCHARGE IN A GAS-FLOW

A combined method of excitation of a gaseous medium is used in an inve stigation of the energy characteristics of a non-self-sustaining disch arge as functions of the capacitance of the capacitor bank, the number of pulses per burst, and the burst repetition rate for different time intervals between the pulses in a burst and different flow velocities of the gas. It is shown for infrared lasers that under optimal pumpin g conditions the average discharge power can reach 8.5 W/cm(3) for a p ulse power of 25 W/cm(3). (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S10 63-7842(98)00605-9].