Effects of Pressure Ratio on Population Inversion in a DF Chemical Laser with Concurrent Lasing

A numerical simulation is presented for investigating the effects of pressure ratio of $D_2$ injector to supersonic nozzle on the population inversion in the DF chemical laser cavity, while a lasing concurrently takes place. The laser beam is generated between the mirrors in the cavity and it is important to obtain stronger population inversion and more uniform distribution of the excited molecules in the laser cavity in order to produce high power laser beam with good quality. In this study, these phenomena are investigated by means of analyzing the distributions of the DF excited molecules and the F atom used as an oxidant, while simultaneously estimating the maximum small signal and saturated gains and power in the DF chemical laser cavity. For the numerical solution, an 11-species (including DF molecules in various excited states of energies), 32-step chemistry model is adopted for the chemical reaction of the DF chemical laser system. The results are discussed by comparison with two $D_2$injector pressure cases; 192 torr and 388.64 torr. Major results reveal that in the resonator, stronger population inversions occur in the all transitions except DF(1)-DF(0), when the $D_2$injection pressure is lower. But, the higher $D_2$injection pressure provides a favorable condition for DF(1)-DF(0) transition to generate the higher power laser beam. In other words, as the pressure of $D_2$injector increases, the maximum small signal gain in the $V_{1-0}$ transition, which is in charge of generating most of laser power, becomes higher. Therefore, the total laser beam power becomes higher.r.