Discharge energy balance in the nitrogen-containing active medium of an electron-beam-controlled CO laser

Numerical methods were used to investigate theoretically the dynamics of the energy balance of a discharge in a CO–N₂ mixture, taking into account the mutual influence of the distributions of the electron energy and of the populations of the molecules over the vibrational levels. It was shown that this influence plays a decisive part in substantially redistributing the pump energy between the vibrational levels of the CO and N₂ molecules in favor of the N₂ molecules. A stabilizing action of the nitrogen on the thermal regime of the CO laser-active medium was discovered and the range of optimal CO:N₂ ratios was determined.