Generalised scaling of an electrogasdynamic CO combustion-product laser

A method is proposed for generalised scaling of a CO laser with a high-frequency discharge in a supersonic stream of combustion products. This laser can operate efficiently without an electron gun and without continuous formation of large amounts of the CO mixture. A theoretical analysis, based on simultaneous solution of a system of equations describing the kinetics of relaxation proceses and gas dynamics, does not yield the explicit parametric dependences of the main parameters of a CO laser. However, acceptable assumptions can be made and these allow the use of general similarity laws for the scaling of a cw electric-discharge CO laser with a high-velocity stream of a mixture of CO and monatomic gases. The results of such scaling can be generalised to a CO mixture, produced by the combustion of a chemical fuel, by calculations of the energy balance of electrons in a discharge that takes place in combustion products. After the determination of the fraction of the electric-field energy acquired by the vibrational levels of the CO molecules, the main parameters of an electrogasdynamic CO combustion-product laser can be calculated with the aid of similarity laws derived for cw CO lasers with electric-discharge excitation of a high-velocity stream of a mixture of CO and monatomic gases.