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Scientific Principles for the Electric Oxygen-Iodine Laser

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Scientific Principles for the Electric Oxygen-Iodine Laser SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES FOR THE ELECTRIC OXYGEN-IODINE LASER BY GABRIEL FRANCISCO BENAVIDES DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Wayne C. Solomon, Chair and Director of Research Professor James G. Eden Professor Gregory S. Elliott Associate Professor Joanna M. Austin Abstract This work describes a systematic investigation to advance the scientific understanding of the electric oxygen-iodine laser (EOIL). The research reported on herein was largely conducted between the years of 2006 and 2011. The work comes on the forefront of EOIL development, recently demonstrated in 2005 with positive gain and lasing through a long-term partnership between the University of Illinois and CU Aerospace in Champaign, IL. Though only first demonstrated in 2005, research towards constructing an EOIL has been carried out periodically since the early 1970s. With low yields of the energy 1 reservoir, O2(a ), achievable in an electric discharge, EOIL research has for many years taken a lower priority when compared to the research of high-yield chemical oxygen-iodine lasers (COIL), which reported successes as early as 1978. While both lasers emit on the same 2 2 I( P1/2)→I( P3/2) transition at 1315 nm, offering nearly equal promise of beam quality and performance, an elusive attractiveness remained with EOIL as a result of nearly four decades of unsuccessful attempts. The reduction in toxicity, complexity, and maintenance of an electrically driven device offers numerous operational and logistical advantages over the COIL. The years of failed attempts with EOIL can largely be explained by the lack of a sufficient body of theoretical and experimental research adequately documenting the technology. This research can be generally classified as: (i) high yield discharge-driven singlet oxygen production, and (ii) the added post-discharge complexity of a diverse media of active oxygen species. The research described here-in was fundamental in increasing reported gain and laser power of EOIL devices from approximately 0.01 %/cm and 500 Milliwatts in 2006 to 0.3 %/cm and 481 Watts by mid-2011. This represents a factor of 30 increase in gain and two orders of magnitude increase in laser power. Such results were only achievable by systematically analyzing each component of EOIL, developing a theoretical understanding of the requirements for each element of the laser, and devising experimental hardware to validate the work. The technologies considered in this work include discharge-driven singlet oxygen generators (DSOG), species and thermal energy regulation (STER) devices, iodine pre-dissociation (IPD) devices, as well as various implementations of high-reflectivity resonators. Though now established by our group, a ii more complete body of research is prerequisite to EOIL achieving its ultimate potential, matching or exceeding the capabilities of similar high energy lasers. This topic is a final chapter in a group of thesis topics conducted by AE and ECE academics that ultimately contributed to the success of electric oxygen-iodine laser research conducted at the University of Illinois. iii Acknowledgments I would like to foremost thank my mentor and Ph.D. research advisor, Professor Wayne Solomon, who conceived of bringing electric oxygen-iodine laser research to the University of Illinois. His steadfast belief that we could succeed where many predecessors had failed encouraged us as we slowly tackled the many challenges which proceeded successful demonstration of ElectricOIL. Dr. Solomon has not only been an outstanding academic advisor and friend for nearly 15 years, but also a role model for being both a successful engineer, businessman, and human being. I must also thank my many other academic colleagues at the University of Illinois, including professors, staff, and fellow students, for both allowing me to learn from them and for assisting me in achieving my academic and professional goals. There have been so many that I ask you to forgive me for not naming everyone individually. However, I must specifically thank Dr. Joseph Zimmerman and Dr. Brian Woodard, with whom I worked closely on ElectricOIL for nearly a decade in pursuit of our graduate degrees. They have been great co-workers, classmates, confidants, and friends, equally responsible for the advancement of ElectricOIL technology. I must also thank my undergraduate and graduate advisor Professor Rodney Burton, who taught me much of what I know in regard to the principles of experimental investigation and sound engineering design. Above all, the ElectricOIL team owes a special thanks to University of Illinois Professor Joseph Verdeyen. He is as brilliant as he is modest. I often wonder if ElectricOIL would have succeeded at all without his keen theoretical insights into plasma physics, lasers, and high voltage electronics. I can think of few individuals I know who are held in as high and deserving esteem by all. I would like to additionally thank my many colleagues at CU Aerospace who have played enormous roles in supporting ElectricOIL advancement over the years. Dr. David Carroll, the engineering director for ElectricOIL research at CU Aerospace, provided significant guidance on laser and laboratory fundamentals. He also invested significant energy advancing ElectricOIL theory as well as writing much of the proposals that ultimately led to the financial sponsorships that provided our daily bread and butter. Also at CU Aerospace, senior physicist Andrew Palla applied his impressive computational skills to iv advancing our theoretical understanding of ElectricOIL kinetics and fluid dynamics through development of the BLAZE model. I am uncertain between theory and experiment, which is the chicken and which is the egg, but I am certain that one cannot exist without the other. Additional leadership, knowhow, and technical support has come from Darren King, Tyler Field, Julia Laystrom-Woodard, and numerous others. I give many thanks to my immediate family and friends who have supported me through all of my academic, professional, and personal endeavors. Thank you for believing in me, for supporting me during hard times, and for keeping me on track to accomplish this important work. Specifically, I must give heartfelt appreciation to my late maternal grandmother, Mary Katz. I can think of no one more selfless and carrying. She provided unconditional faith, encouragement, love, and support, in every endeavor I have ever undertaken. While you cannot be here today in body, you are certainly felt in spirit. I must also express my appreciation to my mother, father, four brothers, sister, and maternal grandfather for their unwavering love and support over the last thirty-four years. Finally, I must thank my loving friend and partner, Jaime Sawka, who supported, encouraged, cared, and sacrificed for me as I often struggled late into the night to compile years of research into this document. The work presented herein is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for my doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering, yet it is also the accomplishment of a wonderful community to which I consider myself privileged to be a member. This work was supported in parts by various contracts: AFRL Phase I SBIR #FA9451- 06-M-0138, HEL-JTO BAA #FA9451-06-D-0016, AFOSR MRI #F49620-02-1-0357, MDA Phase II SBIR #DASG60-03-C-0098, and DARPA #HR0011-09-C-0025 (as subcontract from Physical Sciences, Inc.). Additional support came from CU Aerospace internal research and development funds. v Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. High energy gas laser background and motivation .................................................. 3 1.2. Chemical oxygen-iodine laser background .............................................................. 7 1.3. Discharge driven oxygen-iodine laser background .................................................. 8 1.4. Stages of the ElectricOIL device ............................................................................. 12 1.5. Research objectives ................................................................................................ 21 1.6. Thesis overview ...................................................................................................... 22 2. EOIL theory ........................................................................................................................ 27 2.1. Discharge-driven singlet oxygen generator ........................................................... 27 2.2. Species and thermal energy regulation (STER) ...................................................... 40 2.3. Iodine pre-dissociation ........................................................................................... 48 2.4. Supersonic optical cavity and resonator ................................................................ 50 3. Diagnostics and analysis ................................................................................................... 55 3.1. Physical Sciences iodine scan diagnostic (ISD) ....................................................... 55 3.2. Laser induced fluorescence of molecular iodine ................................................... 63 3.3. Physical Sciences I2 and O3 absorption diagnostics ...............................................
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