| Abstract: | A review of the physics and gasdynamics associated with conventional CO2-N2 gasdynamic lasers (GDL's) is given, including a short survey of the state of the art. The role of advanced, downstream mixing GDL's is examined, and the question is addressed: Can such downstream mixing GDL's provide an order-of-magnitude increase in power output over the conventional device? Finally, combustion driven GDL's with unconventional fuels are examined, and new results for gain and maximum available power are given for various fuel-oxidizer combinations. |
