Novel concept of electric discharge oxygen-iodine laser

A novel concept of discharge oxygen-iodine laser (DOIL) is presented. The supersonic DOIL includes a discharge singlet oxygen generator (DSOG) and discharge atomic iodine generator (DAIG). The operation of DSOG is based on a fast mixing of hybrid argon plasma jet of DC electric arc and RF discharge with a neutral molecular oxygen stream. The goal of our effort is achievement of DOIL oscillations by this new discharge technique, which should provide the singlet oxygen yields exceeding 30% at the total pressures higher than 10 torr. The DAIG operation is based on a cw/pulse RF discharge dissociation of iodine donors directly inside a laser iodine injector. This method substitutes the classic dissociation of molecular iodine by energy of singlet oxygen, which saves its energy for laser generation and so can increase the laser efficiency. The laser power could be thus enhanced by up to 25% if this method is employed in a chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) operation, and even 3 times in DOIL without increase in the iodine laser pumping by singlet oxygen.