Laser actinometry of flash-photolyzed H2/F2/He mixtures

Actinometric and time-to-threshold experiments with flash-initiated H
2
/F
2
/He mixtures have been modeled with the RESALE chemical laser code. Comparison of the salient features of both experiments with those predicted by the code determines the efficiency of our xenon flashlamp in dissociating F
2
. The results indicate that our 1000-J 20-μs full width at half maximum (FWHM) lamp is capable of dissociating 1.2 percent of the F
2
initially present in dilute F
2
/He mixtures.