TY - CONF
T1 - Feasibility studues of a visible chemical laser from the detonation products of lead azide
AU - Bar, I.
AU - Ben-Porat, T.
AU - Cohen, A.
AU - Hetlinger, D.
AU - Tzuk, Y.
AU - Rosenwaks, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research has been supported by Los Alamos National Laboratory under contract No. 9-X2D-1455G-1 and by a grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel. Y.T. thanks the National Council for Research and Development for its support. We thank B.D. Barmashenko, PJ. Dagdigian and D. Shvartz for helpful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 1992 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 1992/1/1
Y1 - 1992/1/1
N2 - Recent advances in the feasibility studies of a visible chemical laser from the detonation products of lead azide (LA) are reported. The spatial and temporal behavior of the detonation products, expanding into vacuum, is obtained via high-speed framing photography, transmission of a HeNe laser beam and chemiluminescence from excited Pb atoms. The photography reveals that following the initiation of LA the products form an expanding, bell-shaped cloud. The HeNe beam is attenuated when the cloud of products traverses its route. The intensity and the temporal behavior of the chemiluminescence depend on the distance to a barrier placed above the LA sample. The cloud contains gaseous products and solid particles which propagate perpendicular to the LA surface. By shining a pulsed beam of a Nd: YAG laser through the opaque cloud of products a hole is burned and a transparent medium is obtained. The characteristics of the hole and the expanding cloud are monitored by the HeNe beam and by the framing photography. The hole-burning is a result of eliminating solid particles from the cjoud. When the detonation products are expanded through a supersonic nozzle enhanced emission in the Pb (*P, °-'D2) transition at 722.9 nm is observed. It is suggested that the enhanced emission is due to preferential excitation of Pb (3P1 0) via energy transfer from electronically excited N2 combined with the effect of self-trapping of the emission from3P1 0 to the3P0, 1, 2 states. The expansion through the nozzle also causes a delay in the appearance of the attenuation. Our results show that enhanced emission in a transparent medium can be obtained following the detonation of LA by different means. The prospects to achieving visible lasing in this system are discussed.
AB - Recent advances in the feasibility studies of a visible chemical laser from the detonation products of lead azide (LA) are reported. The spatial and temporal behavior of the detonation products, expanding into vacuum, is obtained via high-speed framing photography, transmission of a HeNe laser beam and chemiluminescence from excited Pb atoms. The photography reveals that following the initiation of LA the products form an expanding, bell-shaped cloud. The HeNe beam is attenuated when the cloud of products traverses its route. The intensity and the temporal behavior of the chemiluminescence depend on the distance to a barrier placed above the LA sample. The cloud contains gaseous products and solid particles which propagate perpendicular to the LA surface. By shining a pulsed beam of a Nd: YAG laser through the opaque cloud of products a hole is burned and a transparent medium is obtained. The characteristics of the hole and the expanding cloud are monitored by the HeNe beam and by the framing photography. The hole-burning is a result of eliminating solid particles from the cjoud. When the detonation products are expanded through a supersonic nozzle enhanced emission in the Pb (*P, °-'D2) transition at 722.9 nm is observed. It is suggested that the enhanced emission is due to preferential excitation of Pb (3P1 0) via energy transfer from electronically excited N2 combined with the effect of self-trapping of the emission from3P1 0 to the3P0, 1, 2 states. The expansion through the nozzle also causes a delay in the appearance of the attenuation. Our results show that enhanced emission in a transparent medium can be obtained following the detonation of LA by different means. The prospects to achieving visible lasing in this system are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85006868093&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Paper
T2 - AIAA 23rd Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference, 1992
Y2 - 6 July 1992 through 8 July 1992
ER -