Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Yurkovich, Matt
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2016
Subjects:	Aerospace Engineering
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1480577301983725

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu14805773019837252021-08-03T06:39:10Z Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture Yurkovich, Matt Aerospace Engineering The present work studies performance of an electric discharge excited supersonic flow carbon monoxide laser operated with air species in the laser mixture. The main objective is to determine the effect of adding significant amounts of air to the flow on laser power and spectra. For this, different mixtures of carbon monoxide, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and dry air have been tested. The laser mixture is excited by a capacitively coupled, 13.56 MHz radio frequency RF discharge operated at powers of 1 kW and 2 kW in the plenum of a supersonic wind tunnel, to produce strong vibrational excitation of CO molecules in the flow. The flow is then expanded to Mach 3 before reaching a transverse laser resonator using two 99.8% reflective output couplers. CO infrared emission spectra downstream of the discharge section, laser power, and laser spectra are obtained for each set of operating conditions. The emission spectra are used to infer rotational temperature and CO vibrational populations. Laser power and laser spectra are used to quantify the effect of adding N2, O2, or air on laser performance. The addition of nitrogen to the baseline CO-He mixture results in a significant increase in output power, ranging from 50% to almost a factor of 5, depending on the RF discharge power. The addition of oxygen proves to be detrimental to the laser output power, resulting in its significant reduction or absence of laser action. Operation in CO-He-air mixtures demonstrates a combined effect of nitrogen and oxygen. The positive effect of nitrogen is dominant, resulting in higher laser power compared to that in CO-He mixtures. Highest power output of 32.4 W was achieved in a 3.3 Torr CO, 97 Torr He, 13.4 Torr N2 mixture at the RF discharge power of 2 kW, which corresponds to the efficiency of 1.6%. The present results demonstrate that laser action can be achieved in mixtures of CO with significant amounts of air (up to at least 20-30%). Preliminary design of a chemical supersonic CO laser based on a chemical reaction between carbon vapor and oxygen generating highly vibrationally excited CO, C+O2¿CO(v)+O, is discussed. 2016 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1480577301983725 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1480577301983725 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Aerospace Engineering
spellingShingle	Aerospace Engineering Yurkovich, Matt Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
author	Yurkovich, Matt
author_facet	Yurkovich, Matt
author_sort	Yurkovich, Matt
title	Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
title_short	Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
title_full	Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
title_fullStr	Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
title_full_unstemmed	Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture
title_sort	electrically excited, supersonic flow co laser operated with air species in the laser mixture
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2016
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1480577301983725
work_keys_str_mv	AT yurkovichmatt electricallyexcitedsupersonicflowcolaseroperatedwithairspeciesinthelasermixture
_version_	1719440989543727104

Electrically Excited, Supersonic Flow CO Laser Operated with Air Species in the Laser Mixture

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