New Gas Lasers

This report concludes studies begun under FJSRL Work Unit 7903-03-69. Additional work in this area will be continued as FJSRL Task 2303-F4. The objective of this study is to develop a chemical method for producing 02(delta g) in the gas phase and evaluating the 02(delta g)-I transfer chemical laser. A heterogeneous flow reactor was designed in which 90% H2O2 was coated on a glass substrate and exposed to a gas flow of Cl2 or Cl2O. The oxygen generated in the gas phase from the alkaline hypochlorite-peroxide reaction was detected down stream of the reactor via Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. A yield of 11% 02(delta ) to total oxygen was observed for the Cl2/H2O2 system. This represents an intrinsic reaction efficiency of 16%. The lower total yield arises from the contribution of O2 produced by the decomposition of the peroxide solution. The highest total yield for the Cl2O/H2O2 system was 8.4%. The latter system produced O2(delta g) without the addition of base to the H2O2 (5% yield). (Author)