Performance and diagnostics of lasers initiated by the reaction of NO with ClO2

A purely chemical HCl laser employing transverse flow was operated with a maximum multiline output power of 13 W which represents a chemical efficiency of 8.6 percent based on the total exothermicity of the pumping reaction. The required nonequilibrium concentration of Cl atoms was generated by the branched chain reaction of NO with ClO
2
. Mass spectrometric and absorption spectroscopic measurements of species concentrations in the NO/ClO
2
reaction system showed that the effectiveness of production of the branched chain decreased with inereasing total pressure.