Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

This semiannual progress report covers the period from March 1, 1987 to September 30, 1987 under NASA grant NAG1-441 entitled 'Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier'. During this period Nd:YAG and Nd:Cr:GSGG crystals have been tested for the solar-simulator pumped cw laser, and loss mechanisms of the laser output power in a flashlamp-pumped iodine laser also have been identified theoretically. It was observed that the threshold pump-beam intensities for both Nd:YAG and Nd:Cr:GSGG crystals were about 1000 solar constants, and the cw laser operation of the Nd:Cr:GSGG crystal was more difficult than that of the Nd:YAG crystal under the solar-simulator pumping. The possibility of the Nd:Cr:GSGG laser operation with a fast continuously chopped pumping was also observed. In addition, good agreement between the theoretical calculations and the experimental data on the loss mechanisms of a flashlamp-pumped iodine laser at various fill pressures and various lasants was achieved

XeCl laser pumped iodine laser using t-C4F9I

An iodine photodissociation laser using t-C4F9I as the active material was pumped by an XeCl laser. An iodine laser output energy of 3 mJ with pulse duration of 25 ns was obtained when the pumping pulse energy was 80 mJ, the iodide pressure was 70 torr, and the reflectance of the output mirror was 85 percent. The high pumping efficiency and low threshold pump power achieved in this experiment are attributable to the high absorption cross section at the pump laser wavelength (308 nm) of the iodide used

Critical Behavior in the Rotating D-branes

The low energy excitation of the rotating D3-branes is thermodynamically stable up to a critical angular momentum density. This indicates that there is a corresponding phase transition of the ${\cal N}$=4 large $N$ super Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. On the side of supergravity, we investigate the phase transition in the grand canonical ensemble and canonical ensemble. Some critical exponents of thermodynamic quantities are calculated. They obey the static scaling laws. Using the scaling laws related to the correlation length, we get the critical exponents of the correlation function of gauge field. The thermodynamic stability of low energy excitations of the rotating M5-branes and rotating M2-branes is also studied and similar critical behavior is observed. We find that the critical point is shifted in the different ensembles and there is no critical point in the canonical ensemble for the rotating M2-branes. We also discuss the Hawking-Page transition for these rotating branes. In the grand canonical ensemble, the Hawking-Page transition does not occur. In the canonical ensemble, however, the Hawking-Page transition may appear for the rotating D3- and M5-branes, but not for the rotating M2-branes.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages, minor changes, the discussion on the Hawking-Page transition and references adde

Signatures of the neutrino mass hierarchy in supernova neutrinos

The undetermined neutrino mass hierarchy may leave an observable imprint on the neutrino fluxes from a core-collapse supernova (SN). The interpretation of the observables, however, is subject to the uncertain SN models and the flavor conversion mechanism of neutrinos in a SN. We attempt to propose a qualitative interpretation of the expected neutrino events at terrestrial detectors, focusing on the accretion phase of the neutrino burst. The flavor conversions due to neutrino self-interaction, the MSW effect, and the Earth regeneration effect are incorporated in the calculation. It leads to several distinct scenarios that are identified by the neutrino mass hierarchies and the collective flavor transitions. Consequences resulting from the variation of incident angles and SN models are also discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

The improvement on the collection system of the Tarmarack Solar Simulator beam was attemped. The basic study of evaluating the solid state laser materials for the solar pumping and also the work to construct a kinetic model algorithm for the flashlamp pumped iodine lasers were carried out. It was observed that the collector cone worked better than the lens assembly in order to collect the solar simulator beam and to focus it down to a strong power density. The study on the various laser materials and their lasing characteristics shows that the neodymium and chromium co-doped gadolinium scandium gallium garnet (Nr:Cr:GSGG) may be a strong candidate for the high power solar pumped solid state laser crystal. On the other hand the improved kinetic modeling for the flashlamp pumped iodine laser provides a good agreement between the theoretical model and the experimental data on the laser power output, and predicts the output parameters of a solar pumped iodine laser

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

A XeCl laser which was developed earlier for an iodine laser oscillator was modified in order to increase the output pulse energy of XeCl laser so that the iodine laser output energy could be increased. The electrical circuit of the XeCl laser was changed from a simple capacitor discharge circuit of the XeCl laser to a Marx system. Because of this improvement the output energy from the XeCl laser was increased from 60 mj to 80 mj. Subsequently, iodine laser output energy was increased from 100 mj to 3 mj. On the other hand, the energy storage capability and amplification characteristics of the Vortek solar simulator-pumped amplifier was calculated expecting the calculated amplification factor is about 2 and the energy extraction efficiency is 26 percent due to the very low input energy density to the amplifier. As a result of an improved kinetic modeling for the iodine solar simulator pumped power amplifier, it is found that the I-2 along the axis of the tube affects seriously the gain profile. For the gas i-C3F7I at the higher pressures, the gain will decrease due to the I-2 as the pumping intensity increases, and at these higher pressures an increase in flow velocity will increase the gain

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

In order to evaluate the feasibility of the solar pumped dye laser, the parametric study of a dye laser amplifier pumped by a solar simulator and flashlamp was carried out, and the amplifier gains were measured at various pump beam irradiances on the dye cell. Rhodamine 6G was considered as a candidate for the solar pumped laser because of its good utilization of the solar spectrum and high quantum efficiency. The measurement shows that a solar concentration of 20,000 is required to reach the threshold of the dye. The work to construct a kinetic model algorithm which predicts the output parameter of laser was progressed. The kinetic model was improved such that there is good agreement between the theoretical model and experimental data for the systems defined previously as flashlamp pumped laser oscillator, and the long path length solar pumped laser