The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 12, 1980
Filed:
Jun. 05, 1978
Kenneth D Foster, LacBeauport, CA;
Sara J Arnold, Loretteville, CA;
Abstract
A continuous wave hydrogen bromide (HBr) chemical laser is described, in which laser activity is produced by purely chemical means. Gaseous chlorine dioxide and gaseous nitric oxide are mixed and reacted to produce atomic chlorine. The atomic chlorine is reacted with gaseous molecular bromine to generate atomic bromine. The atomic bromine is reacted with gaseous hydrogen iodide to generate vibrationally excited hydrogen bromide by purely chemical means. The vibrationally excited hydrogen bromide is initially formed in such a way that the population of some of the energy states is inverted. The vibrationally excited HBr is itself lased in an optical resonator cavity, or may be used to transfer energy to another gas, such as carbon dioxide, for lasing action of that other gas. The present apparatus provides a flow channel, and separate injectors and injection means for the gaseous reactant materials chlorine dioxide, nitric oxide, bromine molecules and hydrogen iodide. A laser cavity whose central axis is positioned at about 90.degree. to the directional gas flow is located 1 cm downstream from the hydrogen iodide injectors.