Kinetic model of continuous-wave flow chemical lasers

A kinetic approach to modeling the gain in a chemical wave continuous laser when the lasing frequency is coincident with the center of the line shape is presented. Governing equations are defined for the relaxing behavior of an initially nonequilibrium distribution toward the local equilibrium Boltzmann-Maxwellian distribution. A new gain is introduced which is related to the thermal motion of the molecules and cold-reaction and premixed CW models are discussed. Coincidence of the lasing frequency with the line shape is demonstrated to result in a radiative intensity within the homogeneous broadening limit. The rate model predictions are compared with those of the kinetic model. It is found that when the broadening parameter is less than 0.2 the kinetic model more accurately describes the behavior of the CW chemical laser.