Abstract: There are provided chemical lasers which provide pulsed radiation in the visible or near visible (denoted hereafter as short-wavelength) range. The novel pulsed short-wavelength chemical lasers are operated by detonating an explosive mixture which contains fuel and lasants, the detonation resulting in electronically excited molecules. Lasing can be brought about by energy transfer within such molecules, or by energy transfer from such excited molecules to other molecules or to atoms resulting in the desired short-wavelength laser emission. The lasers can be operated at high pulse energies.

Abstract: There is provided a high repetition rate chemical laser comprising in combination a mixing chamber, an inlet for continuously introducing reactants into the chamber, a supersonic nozzle constituting an exit from the mixing chamber, a laser cavity located at the exit of the nozzle and a device for applying pulsed electrical discharge to the reactants in the laser cavity and a method of continuous lasing at a high repetition rate which includes premixing the desired reactants, if required with diluents or inhibitors, expanding the resulting gaseous mixture through a supersonic nozzle to a velocity greater than the combustion velocity of the mixture, and applying to the mixture a high-rate pulsed electrical discharge for initiating the chemical reaction and convecting the spent gases from the laser cavity.