The Sixth International Symposium on Gas Flow and Chemical Lasers (GCL) was held in Jerusalem, Israel, on September 8-12, 1986. The charm and beauty of Jerusalem and the unique blending of ancient and modern made this Symposium an enjoyable experience for the 165 participants and the accompanying persons. Yet, it seems that the invited and contributed papers presented at the Symposium were equally attractive so that most of the participants attended most sessions, resisting the temptations outside the session hall. Indeed, many speakers presented up-to-date results that were obtained, or cleared, just a few days before the Symposium. This volume is a compi­ lation of 19 invited and 61 contributed papers and of a panel discussion on the prospects for short wavelength chemical lasers held at the closing session of the Symposium. This discussion is presented as recorded in order to re­ tain the flavour of spontaneous presentation at the risk - or advantage - of presenting some venturous ideas, and the danger of misquoting. In editing the book, a deductive approach has been attempted. The book starts with some fundamental issues, namely fluid dynamics and optics, and then deals with the design, diagnostics, propagation and applications of various gas laser systems, covering the wavelength spectrum from XUV to infrared. Then follow recent developments of general interest to the laser community and the book concludes with an eye to the future, i.e., with a section on short wavelength chemical lasers.

Inhalt

I Fluid Dynamics.- Density Homogeneity Control in Repetitively Pulsed Gas Lasers.- Aerodynamic Curtains Design for Gas Flow Laser Cavities.- Kinetics of Condensation in Supersonic Expansion (Ar).- Effect of Inlet Pressure on Chemical Laser Flowfield.- Fluid-Dynamic Effects, Including Turbulence, on a High-Pressure Discharge.- Characteristics of Turbulent Flow Stabilized DC-Discharges for CO2 Lasers.- Flow Investigations of Pulsed Arc Discharge Recombination Lasers.- II Optics.- New Developments in Optical Phase Conjugation.- Nonlinear Optical Phase Conjugation of HF Laser Radiation Via Stimulated Brillouin Scattering.- Theory of Wavefront Replication in the Dirac Bracket Operator Formalism.- Laser-Controlled Reflection with a Distributed Feedback Dye Laser.- High Efficiency Raman Conversion of UV to Blue-Green Light.- Mirror Optics for High-Power Laser Beams.- Deformation Measurements on CO2-Laser Output Couplers in Operating High-Power Laser Systems.- Effect of Beam Quality on the Scaling of High-Energy Flow Lasers.- Experimental Investigations of a Free-Vortex Aerodynamic Window.- III Short-Wavelength Lasers.- New VUV and XUV Laser Systems.- Direct Measurement of the Electron Density in the Active Medium of an e-Beam Pumped Argon Fluoride Laser.- Modelling of the X-Ray Preionised XeCI Self-Sustained Discharge Laser.- High-Pulse Repetition Rate Limitations in a High Average Power XeCI Laser.- Blue-Green Laser at 495 nm of the Mercury Trimer Hg3.- Pumping Mechanism Dependence of Emission Spectra in Mercury Bromide Lasers.- IV Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Lasers.- Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser Mechanisms and High Resolution Spectroscopy Studies.- High Vibrational Levels of Iodine as Intermediate States in the Iodine Dissociation by O2(1?g).- Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Singlet Delta Oxygen Generation and Transfer.- Theoretical Modelling and Experimental Analysis of Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Lasers.- V Chemical Vibrational-Transition Lasers.- Combustion-Driven cw HBr Chemical Laser.- HBr cw Combustion-Driven Laser.- Experimental Studies and Kinetic Modelling of a HF Chemical Laser at Low Temperatures.- A Supersonic, Pulsed, Chain-Reaction-Pumped HF Laser.- Chemical Laser F2 Flow Distribution Studies.- Translationally Strongly Non-equilibrium Hot Atom Assemblies and Chemical Laser Pumping.- VI CO Lasers.- Development of a Multikilowatt Closed-Cycle CO Laser.- Parametric Analysis of a cw CO EDL by Computer Simulation.- Effects of RF Preionization in a Transverse-Discharge-Excited cw CO Laser.- Optimization of Discharge Stability of an e-Beam Sustained Supersonic CO Laser by Optical Diagnostic Measurements.- Kinetic Modelling of a Supersonic Flow CO Chemical Laser.- VII CO2 Lasers.- Conductively Cooled Capacitively Coupled RF Excited CO2 Lasers.- RF Excited CO2 Flow Lasers.- 20-kW Fast-Axial-Flow CO2 Laser with High-Frequency Turboblowers.- Multikilowatt Industrial CO2 Laser.- Measurement of Current Fluctuations in a 1 kW Gas Transport Laser.- High-Power cw Discharge Multikilohertz Repetition Rate Q-Switched CO2 Lasers.- New Corona Preionisation Technique for Medium Repetition Rate TEA-Lasers.- Development of a Combustion-Driven After-Mixing Gasdynamic Laser Utilizing Liquid Fuel and Liquid Oxidizer.- Gain of a Gasdynamic Laser Utilizing Products of Liquid C6H6 and Gaseous O2 Combustion.- Comparison of Vibrational Kinetics Models for the Combustion-Driven CO2 Gasdynamic Laser.- VIII Beam Diagnostics.- High-Power Laser Beam Diagnostics - Part I.- High-Power Laser Beam Diagnostics - Part II.- A Diagnostic System for Measurement of the Focussed Beam Diameter of a High-Power CO2 Laser.- Diagnostics of High-Power Laser Beams.- IX Laser Propagation and Interaction.- Interaction of High-Energy Pulsed CO2 Laser with Material.- Laser Material Processing and Its Phenomenology - Theoretical Modelling.- Improved Energy Transfer in Laser Target Interaction Processes by Using Repetitively Pulsed Lasers.- The Deep Penetration of HF Laser Light Into Class and Its Possible Industrial Use.- Aero-Optical Analysis of a Compressible Shear Layer.- High-Frequency Turbulence Diagnostics by Scintillation Measurements.- Atmospheric Propagation of Pulsed High-Power Laser Beam Increase in Energy Transmission Using a Precursor Pulse.- Non-Optogalvanic Signal Characteristic Times in Prebreakdown Discharges.- Initiation Processes and Development of Laser-Induced Low-Pressure Spark Channels.- X Applications.- Industrial Applications of Excimer Lasers.- Vitrification and Modification of Metal Surfaces by Laser for Chemical Applications.- Laser Cladding of Heat Treated Steel.- Influence of Processing Conditions on Surface Melting of Steels.- Generation and Application of a Pulsed CO2 Laser of High Average Power.- Industrial Applications of High-Power CO2 Lasers, Power Range 1-5 kW.- Influence of the External Pressure on Laser-Material Interaction During the Welding Process.- Plasma Control During Welding Process at High Power and Low Target Velocity.- Robolaser in the Car Industry.- XI Recent Developments.- Scientific and Technical Aspects and Prospects of High-Power Lasers for the SDI.- Metal Vapour Lasers - Recent Advances and Applications.- Elementary Particle Acceleration in Laser Plasma Interaction.- IBr Photodissociation Laser as a Simulation for a Solar Pumped System.- XII Short-Wavelength Chemical Lasers.- Short-Wavelength Chemical Lasers.- The C + N2O?CN(A,X) + NO Reaction: a Possible Candidate for a Near Infrared Electronic Transition Chemical Laser?.- Explosive Decomposition of Tetramethyldioxetane in the Solid Phase: Potential for a High Density Short Wavelength Chemical Laser.- Kinetics of Production of Electronically Excited IF.- Experimental Study of the Level-to-Level Rotationally Inelastic Transition Rates of Iodine Monofluoride During Collisions with Noble Gases.- Interhalogen Collisional Dynamics: The B3?(0+) State of BrCl.- Formation of I(2P1/2 Atoms in the F+I2 and H+I2 Reactions.- Panel Discussion: Prospects for Short Wavelength Chemical Lasers.- Index of Contributors.