Modeling of the gain, temperature, and iodine dissociation fraction in a supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser

We report on a simple one-dimensional model developed for the fluid dynamics and chemical kinetics in the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL). Two different I₂ dissociation mechanisms are tested against the performance of a COIL device in our laboratory. The two dissociation mechanisms chosen are the celebrated mechanism of Heidner and the newly suggested mechanism of Heaven. The gain calculated using Heaven's dissociation mechanism is much lower than the measured one. Employing Heidner's mechanism, a surprisingly good agreement is obtained between the measured and calculated gain and temperature over a wide range of the flow parameters. Other predictions of the model (larger mixing efficiency and higher temperature with a leak opened downstream of the resonator and gain decrease along the flow) are also in agreement with the experimental observations.