Supersonic cw chemical HF laser with a two-jet nozzle array and additional dilution of reagents by a rare gas

Some operational characteristics were determined experimentally for a self-contained supersonic chemical HF laser with a two-jet axisymmetric nozzle array realising the principle of three-jet mixing. The reagent jets were separated by a helium layer at the array exit. This array (replacing the traditional two-jet nozzle — nozzle system) made it possible to increase by a factor of 1.3 — 1.6 (up to 120 — 140 mm) the length of the active medium and to reduce by 30% the optical inhomogeneity of the medium.