Accumulation of excited iodine atoms in iodine photodissociation laser. Analysis of kinetic equations

An analysis is made of the kinetic model of an iodine photodissociation laser operating in the regime of accumulation of excited iodine atoms. It is shown that in the majority of cases of practical importance the population inversion is limited by the quenching caused by radicals. The degree of decomposition of the starting material is low and the thickness of the excited layer corresponds to one or two optical thicknesses. The inversion lifetime is governed by the accumulation of molecular iodine. Analytic expressions are obtained for concentrations of various components of the medium.