Pulsed chemical laser with variable pulse-length electron-beam initiation and magnetic confinement

Abstract
Performance of a pulsed HF/DF chain laser was investigated for the case of transverse initiation by a magnetically confined electron beam. Laser energy and beam quality are presented as functions of electron gun, magnetic field, gas mixture, and optical resonator parameters. The results include 79-J/l HF output and electrical efficiency for conversion of total incident e-beam energy to laser output energy of 45%.