Studies of the Longitudinal Electrophoresis Dynamics in Pulse-Periodic Discharges

The establishing in time of the axial distribution of metal vapors is studied on injecting them electrophoretically into a pulse-periodic discharge. In particular, the time-dependent solution of the diffusion equation for the metal vapor concentration is obtained averaged through a number of pulses. The axial distributions of vapors for various instants of time are calculated. The homogeneity criteria for these distributions are determined. The settling times of the homogeneous distribution in conditions typical for the pulse-periodic metal vapor lasers are found. These times are rather short (about 1 s). The results obtained show promise for using electrophoresis in pulse-periodic metal vapor lasers to form homogeneous active media.