Temperature requirements and corrosion rates in combustion driven hydrogen fluoride supersonic diffusion lasers

A maximum F-atom yield from F2 occurs in a combustion driven hydrogen fluoride supersonic diffusion laser (HFSDL) because the amount of fluorine reacted with hydrogen (or deuterium) continues to increase with temperature after most of the unreacted fluorine has been thermally dissociated. A small decease from the maximum combustor F-atom yield allows a significant decease in the required temperature and in the corrosion rates that uncooled laser nozzles would display. The temperatures that give F-atom yields equal to 95 percent of the maximum values were calculated for typical HFSDL combustor pressures and F-atom mole fractions and the corrosion rates of uncooled nozzles were evaluated at these temperatures. The corrosion rates of materials resistant to fluorine attack at the highest temperatrues would allow HFSDL applications or test experiments up to several hours duration.