Gas consumption in pulse-periodic and cw operation of a photodissociation laser

A method is proposed for estimating the gas consumption rate and the energy content of working substances, and thus comparing the operating lifetime of a photodissociation laser with that of other lasers. The method is based on the use of graphs of the dependences of dimensionless variables, the consumption of the substance and the laser radiation energy, on the dimensionless duration of pumping. The dependences found for both cw and pulse-periodic lasing contain a single parameter, which is determined by the substance. A comparison of different lasers in terms of the energy radiated during their service life and of the average power shows that the lifetime of a photodissociation laser is most probably limited not by the gas consumption but by other factors which are common to all lasers.