All gas-phase iodine laser (AGIL)Anil K. Maini. is a

chemical laser A chemical laser is a laser that obtains its energy from a chemical reaction. Chemical lasers can reach continuous wave output with power reaching to megawatt levels. They are used in industry for cutting and drilling. Common examples of chemical ...

using gaseous

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

as a

lasing medium The active laser medium (also called gain medium or lasing medium) is the source of optical gain within a laser. The gain results from the stimulated emission of photons through electronic or molecular transitions to a lower energy state from a ...

. Like the

chemical oxygen iodine laser A chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) is a near–infrared chemical laser. As the beam is infrared, it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is capable of output power scaling up to megawatts in Laser#Continuous_wave_operation, continuous mode. Its ...

(COIL), it operates at the 1.315 µm wavelength (

near-infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of Light, visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from ...

). AGIL was developed in order to eliminate the problems with aqueous chemistry of the COILs. AGIL uses a reaction of

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

atoms with gaseous

hydrazoic acid Hydrazoic acid, also known as hydrogen azide or azoimide, This also contains a detailed description of the contemporaneous production process. is a compound with the chemical formula . It is a colorless, volatile, and explosive liquid at room tem ...

, resulting in excited molecules of chloro

nitrene In chemistry, a nitrene or imene () is the nitrogen analogue of a carbene. The nitrogen atom is uncharged and univalent, so it has only 6 electrons in its valence level—two covalent bonded and four non-bonded electrons. It is therefore consid ...

(NCl), which then pass their energy to the iodine atoms much like the singlet oxygen does in COIL. The iodine atoms then emit the laser radiation itself. AGIL has numerous advantages over COIL. The chemicals are all in gaseous phase, therefore easier to work with than liquids, especially in

microgravity The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...

conditions. The chemicals are also lighter, which is a significant advantage in aerospace applications.

References

External links

A new all gas-phase chemical iodine laser
Chemical lasers {{optics-stub

See also

References

External links