<title>High-performance pulsed HF chemical lasers</title>

Abstract

We demonstrated a high energy delivery of a pulsed wavelength-selected HF chemical laser by fluoride glass fibers (core/cladding equals 450/500 micrometers ). The optical energy of 19 mJ in a 540 ns pulse was successfully delivered with a peak intensity of 22 MW/cm<SUP>2</SUP> at the exit core surface. We have also theoretically investigated the operational characteristics of the pulsed chain first vibrational overtone HF chemical laser using a computer code. The model used can describe simultaneously both the fundamental and overtone oscillations. The higher overtone output energy of 2.73 J/l can be obtained with a gas mixture consisting of F<SUB>2</SUB>/H<SUB>2</SUB>/He equals 10/4/786 (Torr) by successfully suppressing the ASE.