Kinetics of evolution of spatioenergetic characteristics of the radiation of a supersonic cw chemical HF laser

A powerful supersonic cw chemical HF laser was subjected to a bench investigation with the aid of a semiconductor ionisation-type chamber. This investigation yielded information on the distribution of the laser radiation field and of its power density, on the beam profile, on the geometric dimensions of the cross section and ‘jitter’ of the beam, on the energy divergence of the radiation, and on the evolution of these characteristics during the laser start process.