Abstract

A brief discussion of different concepts of the existing CW gasdynamic CO₂ lasers is made from the viewpoint of the possibility of adopting them to technological operations requiring radiation beams of high average power. Three basic variants are distinguished:

1. CO₂ - N₂ GDL with thermal excitation and selective pumping in a stream mixing process; open cycle.
2. CO₂ - N₂ GDL, thermally excited by combustion and nonselectively pumped during supersonic expansion; open cycle.
3. CO₂ - N₂ GDL with thermal excitation by combustion and selective pumping; open cycle.