Spatial and recovery measurements of gain in an electric oxygen- iodine laser

Recent investigations of an Electric Oxygen-Iodine Laser system have shown that computational modeling overpredicts the laser power output measured in experiments for similar gain conditions. To help resolve this discrepancy, detailed 2-axis mapping of gain and gain recovery measurements downstream of an operating laser cavity were performed. Modeling and analyses of the gain recovery experiments indicate that when the pumping rate of I(P1/2) by O2(aΔ) is reduced by an effective factor of approximately 4 as a result of an unknown competing reaction, the calculations are well matched to the experimental gain recovery measurements. The agreement between the measured and modeled laser power extraction also significantly improves when the reduced effective pumping rate is used. The results suggest that there may be a competing reaction that effectively reduces the forward pumping rate as compared to the classical chemical oxygen-iodine laser kinetics rates. Understanding of this kinetic process should enable us to accommodate or eliminate its impact on ElectricOIL performance.