Book Description

The document reviews Soviet work on pulsed chemical lasers published in the open literature in 1963-1970. Whereas U.S. research combines the approaches of physics, quantum electrodynamics, and aerodynamics, Soviet laser research is heavily--and expertly--oriented to understanding the chemical reactions. They prefer pulsed to cw systems, concentrating on kinetics of vibrationally excited diatomic systems. The documents studies gas lasers with discharge, photolytic, and other initiation and includes research on HN3+CO2 mixtures and studying means of controlling reaction rates by resonant coupling and selective heating. The report also proposes a laser based on photorecombination of atoms. (Author).