Science Applications International Corporation

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Rockwell International Corporation

Gary Francis Morr

Sheri Lynne Woelfle

William A Duncan

Stanley L Pruett

Earl C Curtis

The invention herein is directed to a dual-chamber combustion laser assembly having lighter weight (per unit flow area), a more compact, flexible configuration for packaging in spacecraft, aircraft, or ground mobile vehicles, higher mass efficiency from lower heat loss and proven power extraction efficiency of linear lasers, superior output beam quality by incremental compensation of gain medium optical path disturbances and by reduction in time-dependent variations in structural and gain medium characteristics, lower cost and shorter fabrication time for modular dual flow laser and linear optics, more efficient pressure recovery with side-wall isolation nozzles and compact diffuser configurations, and increased small signal gains for more efficient extraction of overtone power.

Dual flow common combustor chemical laser

Dual-flow common combustor chemical laser

A chemical laser cavity fuel injection system is provided in which a conving-diverging nozzle for injecting an oxidizer has manifolds mounted at opposite sides and at the exit plane of the converging-diverging nozzle with fuel injection wedges connected to the manifolds and having ports therein for injecting fuel therethrough with each wedge terminating at one side of the nozzle before crossing the boundary layer region at this side of the converging-diverging nozzle to provide secondary wedges that are staggered to provide for more uniform mixing and therefore less degrading in the laser output power over prior art arrangements.

Advanced chemical laser cavity fuel injection system

A self-contained device for pumping supersonic gas flows. The pumping dev consists of a chemically activated material capable of chemical reaction with the gas mixture to be pumped, thermal ballast material, a hermetically sealable vessel for containing the chemically active material, and internal surfaces to provide gas flow passages. The internal gas flow passages are geometrically prescribed to accept a supersonic gas flow, to induce a stable normal shock, to diffuse the subsonic flow obtained after the normal shock, and to distribute the low velocity, subsonic gas flow to the reactive chemical pump material.

Chemical pump with integral diffuser

There is provided a gain medium capable of radiating spectral lines differing in intensity as a function of position along a selected, gain-medium axis. A first resonator is arranged along a first optical axis that crosses the gain medium in a first region along the selected, gain-medium axis; the first resonator is adapted to establish a first optical mode that selectively lases one group of the spectral lines of the gain medium, namely a group thereof having high intensity within the volume in which the first mode is established. A second resonator is arranged along a second optical axis that crosses the gain medium in a second region along the selected, gain-medium axis; the second resonator is adapted to establish a second optical mode that lases a second group of spectral lines differing at least in part, from the first group. The second group of spectral lines has high intensity within the volume in which the second mode is established. The laser energy from the first and second resonators is outcoupled onto a target. In the case of a gas transport laser, the first resonator is adapted to lase a group of spectral lines having a higher frequency than the second resonator.

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Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

Gary Francis Morr