Investigation of a D2–CO2 gasdynamic mixing laser

An investigation was made of the active medium of a D₂–CO₂ gasdynamic mixing laser in which deuterium was heated in a pulsed electric discharge. The time dependences of the small-signal gain were determined for two rotational transitions in the 001–100 band of the CO₂ molecule and the time dependences of the pressures in the heater chamber and in the laser channel were obtained. The experimental results were used to calculate the energy stored in the laser channel. The relaxation losses of the vibrational energy suffered in the course of mixing of the CO₂ molecules with a supersonic deuterium stream were not very high.