ABSTRACT
In a chemical laser, the lasing species are produced via an exothermic chemical reaction that can be initiated via chemical, electric discharge, photolysis, electron beam, or other processes. Several chemical lasers that have the potential for generating very high power laser beams have been proposed for use in Star Wars. To fully understand the operation of a HF/DF chemical laser requires some knowledge from many diverse scientific disciplines. A chemical laser system consists of these major subassemblies: gas supply system, medium generator, and pumping system. The specific power has been found to be approximately constant as the flow rate through a laser device is increased. To develop a thorough understanding of how a chemical laser operates requires knowledge of the processes that occur in the combustor and optical cavity regions. The magnitude of the deactivation rates for vibrationally excited HF and DF are also comparable, but the DF values are slightly smaller.
