Analysis of the excitation kinetics of a CO2:N2:He mixture using refined models of the vibrational temperatures

An analysis is made of the excitation kinetics of the active medium of a TEA CO₂ laser using different theoretical models: a temperature model, either taking into account or neglecting anharmonicity in the ν₃ modes of CO₂ and N₂, and a model taking into account the level kinetics in the ν₃ modes of CO₂ and N₂. A comparison is made of the results of a calculation with the experimental dependence of the laser output energy on the specific input energy in the range up to 2 J/cm³. The calculated and experimental data are found to agree for a vibrational temperature model taking anharmonicity into account and using a relatively high value, known from the literature, of the constant of the intramode exchange in nitrogen, and for a model taking into account the level kinetics and assuming accumulation of strong relaxants of the upper active level.