Calculation of the energy and spectral characteristics of a supersonic electron-beam-sustained CO laser with periodic cavity Q-switching

A computational study was made of the energy and spectral characteristics of the radiation of a supersonic electron-beam-sustained CO laser with repetitively pulsed Q-switching of the cavity. The calculations were performed for the parameters of an electron-beam-sustained electric discharge, gas mixture, supersonic channel, and cavity close to the corresponding parameters for the existing mock-up of a laser of this type operating in the cw regime with the output radiation power of 200 kW. In the repetitively pulsed regime, the parameters of the output radiation depended on the pulse repetition frequency. In the frequency range 0.7 - 50 kHz, the average specific output energy was 28% - 96% of the cw specific energy, the peak power exceeded by two - three orders of magnitude the cw power, and the duration of the lasing pulses at halfamplitude was 35 - 60 ns. The emission spectrum consisted of several tens of lines in the wavelength range {lambda}= 4.9 - 8.2 {mu}m. (lasers)