Efficiency of the excitation of CO2 in a gasdynamic laser with gas mixing

An experimental investigation was made of the inversion characteristics of a gasdynamic CO₂ laser in which cold carbon dioxide was mixed with vibrationally excited nitrogen in a medium of the H₂O:O₂:N₂=0.16:0.11:0.73 composition. This medium was heated by burning hydrogen in atmospheric oxygen. For transverse injection in a plane where the Mach number was 3.5 the efficiency of excitation of CO₂ (ν₃) was 0.8 for a molar fraction of CO₂ up to 25%.