Gasdynamic Laser

1. Introduction.- 2. Basic Concepts of Quantum Electronics.- 2.1 Energy Levels and Quantum Transitions in Atoms and Molecules.- 2.2 Absorption and Amplification of Light in a Gas: Pumping and the Gain Coefficient.- 2.3 Laser Radiation in Resonators: Radiation Power.- 2.4 Unstable and Multipass Resonators.- 2.5 Active Medium Flow in a Cavity.- 3. Physico-chemical Gas Kinetics.- 3.1 Thermodynamic Properties of Gas Mixtures.- 3.2 Molecular Energy Exchange upon Collisions.- 3.3 Vibrational Transition Probabilities in Molecules.- 3.4 Vibrational Relaxation Kinetics.- 3.5 Vibrational Exchange Kinetics in CO2.- 3.6 Chemical Reactions in Gases.- 3.7 Processes in Heterogeneous Mixtures.- 4. Relaxation in Nozzle Gas Flow.- 4.1 One-Dimensional Steady-State Inviscid Gas Flow.- 4.2 Deactivation of Molecular Vibrations and Recombination of Atoms in Nozzles.- 4.3 Nozzle Contouring. Non-One-Dimensional Gas Flow.- 4.4 Effect of Viscosity. Gas Flow in Nozzle Array Wakes.- 4.5 Shock Tube with a Nozzle.- 5. Infrared CO2 Gasdynamic Laser.- 5.1 Kinetics of Processes in an Active Medium. Gain Coefficient.- 5.2 Small-Signal Gain Optimization.- 5.3 Output Power. Power Optimization.- 5.4 Combustion-Driven Gasdynamic Laser. Effect of Impurities.- 5.5 Supersonic Mixing Gasdynamic Lasers.- 5.6 Losses and Efficiency.- 5.7 Twin-Mode CO2 Laser.- 5.8 Creation of an Active Medium in Expansion Waves and Shock Waves.- 6. Gasdynamic Lasers with Other Active Medium.- 6.1 N2O and CS2 Gasdynamic Lasers.- 6.2 Carbon Monoxide Gasdynamic Laser.- 6.3 Gasdynamic Lasers for Far Infrared Spectral Region.- 6.4 Recombination Lasers on Electronic Transitions.- 6.5 Plasmadynamic Lasers.- Appendixes.- A. Derivation of Relations Between Einstein's Coefficients.- B. Approximate Analytical Representation of the VoigtFunctions.- C. Small-Signal Gain as a Function of Intensity.- D. Simplest Models of Molecular Motion.- E. Relations Between Concentrations of Mixture Components.- F. Material Balance Equations for Mixtures.- G. Chemical Equilibrium in a Gas Mixture.- H. Derivation of the Arrhenius Formula for the Rate Constant of a Chemical Reaction.- I. Chemical Kinetics Equations.- J. Relations for Gasdynamic Parameters of One-Dimensional Steady-State Flow.- K. Continuity Equation for an Individual Component in a Flow.- L. Implicit Method of the Numerical Solution of Differential Equations.- M. Relaxation of the System of Harmonic Oscillators in Nonisothermic Conditions.- List of the Most Used Symbols.- References.