Dissociation and regeneration kinetics of carbon dioxide in the active medium of sealed-off transverse RF-excited CO2 lasers

An improved mathematical model describing the dissociation and regenerations kinetics of carbon dioxide in the active medium of sealed-off transverse RF-excited CO₂ lasers is presented. It is shown that the calculation of the active medium composition of such lasers requires the equations of the gas-mixture kinetics to take into account the diffuse flow of oxygen atoms on metal electrodes and on the surface of heterogeneous catalysts used to reduce the degree of the carbon dioxide dissociation. The rate constants of the heterogeneous recombination reaction CO + O → CO₂ on the surface of alumina ceramics and Al₂O₃ are determined.