Parameter studies of pulsed HF lasers

The average output power of pulsed HF chemical lasers is found to depend strongly on the fluorine source used. The best performance was obtained from H
2
-C
2
F
6
-He mixes, which gave average powers of 850 mW and energies of 20 mJ/pulse. Peak gains of at least 0.036 cm
^-1
are observed. Average powers of 450 mW from DF and 70 mW from HCl are reported.