Experimental studies on a gas dynamic laser with narrow throat and high area-ratio grid nozzles

This paper describes a combustion-driven CO2 gas dynamic laser (GDL) with a throat height of 0.3mm and a grid nozzle with an area-ratio of 30 and presents some experimental results. The behavior of the flow and the location of shock waves in the optical cavity were observed. The variation in small-signal gain G(sub 0) with CO2 or H2O contents were measured and compared with the experimental data from a similar set-up with a nozzle throat height of 0.8mm and an area-ratio of 17. Some of the advantages are obvious for the narrower throat height and higher area-ratio GDL: the G(sub 0) can be increased by a factor of 50%; and the H2O contents may be increased from 1% to 5%.