Singlet-Delta Oxygen Generation via Electron Impact Excitation

Chemical oxygen-iodine lasers (COIL) are being developed for use in several MDA mission areas, in part due to their favorable operating wavelength, relatively high chemical efficiency, and their ability to be scaled to high beam powers. Unfortunately, the reagents and fluid-handling equipment associated with generation of one of the laser reactants (metastable oxygen) are bulky, hazardous to personnel, and are, in general, not well-suited for an aircraft or space environment. Nanohmics proposes to develop a metastable oxygen generator for COIL based on electron-impact excitation of gaseous O2, using electrons produced via field emission from an array of carbon-based nanostructures. The generator we propose will allow production of a high-yield flow of metastable oxygen without contamination by atomic oxygen, water vapor, hydrogen peroxide, or other species that can adversely affect the downstream laser components or can cause quenching of the excited iodine.