Aerodynamic large volume gaseous electric discharge system

Claim 2

A laser system having a large volume discharge in a gaseous medium having a pressure greater than 25 Torr; comprising means, for forming an at least partially enclosed chamber; a gaseous lasing medium contained therein; means, including a plurality of electrodes at one end of said chamber and at least one electrode at the other end of said chamber for establishing a plurality of separate discharges within said chamber to provide a population inversion in the gaseous medium; said means, for establishing separate discharges within said chamber, including means for providing an individual ballast for each of said discharges; means for aerodynamically controlling the spacial distribution of charge and temperature within the chamber; said last named means including means for providing a flow of said gaseous medium through said channel; and means for optically extracting a coherent beam of energy from said channel; means upstream of said plurality of electrodes for creating vortices adjacent the plurality of electrodes to rapidly diffuse the plasma, and an array of converging diverging nozzles downstream of said anodes to further provide a homogeneous discharge plasma.

Claim 3

The device as recited in claim 1 including means for providing shocking in the nozzles whereby mixing is further enhanced.

Claim 4

A laser system, comprising: means forming an enclosed space; a gaseous medium in said enclosed space having a pressure greater than 25 Torr; a channel member within said enclosed space; a plurality of individual electrodes extending into one end of said channel member with an interelectrode spacing 2d; at least one electrode, at the other end of said channel, spaced from said plurality of electrodes a distance l; means for establishing separate discharges between the plurality of electrodes at one end of the channel and said at least one electrode at the other end of the channel; for providing a population inversion in the gaseous medium; said means including means for providing an individual ballast for each of said discharges; means for providing a flow of gaseous lasing medium through said channel with a predetermined velocity V where the ratio l/V K (d2/ lambda m Cm) where lambda m is the average molecular mean free path, Cm is the mean molecular velocity, and K is a geometrical constant depending upon the configuration of the apparatus, where the distance 2d between the individual electrodes of said plurality of electrodes is such that the diffusion time from one stream to the next is of the order of the transit time over the distance l from the plurality of individual electrodes to the at least one electrode; means for optically extracting a coherent beam of energy from said channel.

Claim 5

A laser system, comprising: means forming an enclosed space; a gaseous medium in said enclosed space having a pressure greater than 25 Torr; a channel member within said enclosed space; a plurality of individual electrodes extending into one end of said channel member with an interelectrode spacing 2d; at least one electrode, at the other end of said channel, spaced from said plurality of electrodes a distance l; means for establishing separate discharges between the plurality of electrodes at one end of the channel and said at least one electrode at the other end of the channel; for providing a population inversion in the gaseous medium; said means including means for providing an individual ballast for each of said discharges; means for providing a flow of gaseous lasing medium through said channel with a predetermined velocity V where the ratio l/V K (d2/ lambda m Cm) where lambda m is the average molecular mean free path, Cm is the mean molecular velocity, and K is a geometrical constant depending upon the configuration of the apparatus, where the distance 2d between the individual electrodes of said plurality of electrodes is such that the diffusion time from one stream to the next is of the order of the transit time over the distance l from the plurality of individual electrodes to the at least one electrode; means for optically extracting a coherent beam of energy from said channel.

Claim 6

The device as recited in claim 3 wherein said means for optically extracting energy from said channel includes a folded optical path substantially perpendicular to the direction of gas flow in said channel.

Claim 7

The device as recited in claim 4 including a totally reflecting mirror at one end of said folded optical path and a partially-transmitting-partially-reflecting laser output mirror at the other end of said folded optical path.

Claim 8

The device as recited in claim 5 including a gas recirculation path, for said gas lasing medium, within said enclosed space; a heat exchanger in said recirculation path; said means for providing a flow of gaseous lasing medium being a plurality of motor-driven fans positioned adjacent said heat exchanger; means, adjacent the output of said heat exchanger for providing a substantially laminar flow of gaseous medium through said channel.

Claim 9

The device as recited in claim 6 wherein said means for providing a folded optical path includes in addition to the totally reflecting mirror, and the partially-transmitting-partially-reflecting mirror, additional mirror means for reflecting light acrosS said discharges a plurality of times.

Claim 10

The device as recited in claim 7 including means for blocking parasitic oscillations and stray reflections within the laser channel.

Claim 11

The device as recited in claim 8 wherein said at least one electrode comprises a sheet of insulating material; a plurality of tapered passages through said sheet aligned with said plurality of individual electrodes and cathode emitting material positioned within said passages for permitting discharges to be set up between the plurality of individual electrode and the cathode emitting material within the tapered passages.

Claim 12

The device as recited in claim 8 including a sheet of insulating material; a plurality of tapered openings in said sheet having the smallest diameter in the center of the sheet and one of said plurality of electrodes projecting into each of said openings.

Claim 13

The device as recited in claim 3 wherein said at least one electrode comprises a sheet of insulating material; a plurality of tapered passages through said sheet, and cathode emitting material positioned within said passages.

Claim 14

The device as recited in claim 11 including a sheet of insulating material; a plurality of tapered openings in said sheet having the smallest diameter in the center of the sheet and one of said plurality of electrodes projecting into each of said openings.

Claim 15

The device as recited in claim 3 wherein said means for supplying said gaseous lasing medium to said channel is located at the end adjacent said plurality of electrodes; said means for providing a flow through said channel being a gas pump adjacent the end of said channel remote from said gaseous lasing medium supplying means.

Claim 16

The device as recited in claim 3 including a plurality of electrodes at said other end of said channel; said means for establishing separate discharges being an A. C. supply means connected between said plurality of electrodes at said one end of said channel and said plurality of electrodes at the said other end of said channel and means for controlling the current flow in the separate discharges.

Claim 17

The device as recited in claim 2 wherein said means for optically extracting energy from said chamber includes a folded optical path substantially perpendicular to the direction of gas flow in the chamber.