Hydrogen Fluoride Elimination Chemical Laser from <i>N,N</i>-Difluoromethylamine

Abstract

Hydrogen fluoride laser emission has been observed following flash photolysis of mixtures of CH4+N2F4 and CH3I+N2F4. Both N2F4 and NF2 were found to be good sources of fluorine atoms to cause HF laser emission through H-atom abstraction. At temperatures below 268°K and with photolysis occurring in a Vycor laser tube, F-atom production was reduced to the point that no emission was observed in the N2F4+CH4 system. However, emission was still observed in the CH3I+N2F4 system and was attributed to the following reactions: CH3I→ lim hνCH3+I*, CH3+N2F4→CH3NF2†+NF2, CH3NF2†→HCN+2HF†. At 248°K, emission was observed in only two transitions P1→0(5) and P1→0(6). The population ratio N1 / N0 has been found to be in the range 0.33–0.37 for the elimination reaction, the lowest yet recorded for a chemical laser.