Kinetics of the active medium of a multiwave IR xenon laser in hard-ioniser-pumped mixtures with He and Ar. II. Nuclear pumping

The results of calculations based on a new detailed nonsteady-state multiwave kinetic model of a laser based on xenon atom transitions with λ = 1.73, 2.03, 2.65, 2.63, 3.37, and 3.51 μm in an He — Ar — Xe mixture were compared with the results of experimental studies of a nuclear-pumped xenon laser carried out making use of several experimental setups. A satisfactory agreement between the calculations and experiments was achieved. The causes of the impairment of the nuclear-pumped xenon laser characteristics with increase in the temperature of the medium were discovered. It was found that nuclear pumping of a Ar — Xe mixture can result in attaining a lasing efficiency up to 3.5%. A laser nuclear-pumped by the VIR-2M reactor was fully optimised.