Energy characteristics of gasdynamic lasers utilizing transitions between the symmetric and bending modes of the CO2 molecule

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the energy characteristics of lasing due to transitions between the levels of coupled CO₂ modes in gasdynamic lasers. The calculations were performed by solving the rate equations for the populations of the vibrational states. Conditions were found under which the collisional coupling between the levels enabled a considerable fraction of the vibrational energy to be converted into radiation. The optimal gas mixture compositions were determined for eight vibrational transitions in the wavelength range 16.4–21.2 μ. It was shown that the specific output energy from a number of transitions could be as high as several joules per gram.