Lifetime of a two-phase active medium of a pulsed chemical HF laser

An analysis of the response of an aerosol and of the laser-chemical kinetics of a photon-branched chain reaction is used to determine the range of the maximum permissible parameters of the disperse component capable of supporting the operation of a pulsed chemical HF laser with a two-phase active medium (particle radius 0.09 — 0.4 μm, particle concentration 10⁹ — 10⁷ cm^–3 ). It is shown that, in this range of parameters, the lifetime of the active medium of an HF laser with disperse Al particles is governed by coagulation, precipitation, and electrostatic scattering of particles, and that it amounts to 250 s. The main contribution to the degradation of the disperse component of the active medium comes from Brownian coagulation.