A purely chemical HCl laser employing transverse flow

A purely chemical continuous wave HCl laser has been developed. The purely chemical production of nonequilibrium concentrations of Cl atoms is achieved by a branched chain reaction between NO and ClO
2
. Three modes of accomplishing the prepumping chemistry are discussed and their effects on HCl laser performance are evaluated. A transverse flow laser was operated having a maximum HCl multiline output power of 4 W and a chemical efficiency of 6.6 percent based on the total exothermicity of the pumping reaction.