Irvin M. Miller

Catalytic Recombination Of Dissociation Products With Pt/SnO2 For Rare And Common Isotope Long-Life, Closed-Cycle CO2 Lasers

This paper reports results on recombination of pulsed CO2 laser dissociation products with Pt/Sn02 catalysts, and supporting studies in a surrogate laboratory catalyst reactor. The closed-cycle, pulsed CO2 laser has been continuously operated for 106 pulses with an overall power degradation of less than five percent. This operation was achieved by flowing the laser gas mixture through a 2% Pt/Sn02 catalyst bed. In the surrogate laboratory reactor experiments have been conducted to determine isotopic exchange with the catalyst when using rare-isotope gases. Some isotope exchange has been observed but a technique for minimizing such exchange has been demonstrated. The effects of catalyst pretreatment, catalyst sample weight, and catalyst composition and temperature on catalyst efficiency have also been determined.

Evaluation of catalyst for closed cycle operation of high energy pulsed CO2 lasers

Several catalyst materials have been tested for efficiency of converting CO and 02 to CO2 for use in a high energy CO2 laser. The composition of the gas mixtures was monitored by mass spectrometry and gas chromatography. A copper/copper oxide catalyst and a platinum/ tin oxide catalyst were used for closed cycle operation of a CO2 laser (0.7 joules/pulse), operating at 10 pulses per second.