A Solar Pumped Gas Laser for the Direct Conversion of Solar Energy

The first solar pumping of a gas laser scalable to high-power levels was achieved. The solar radiation was from a xenon arc solar simulator with a 4-kW beam power and a spectral distribution of air mass zero to an accuracy of about 20%. With the lasant n-heptafluoropropyl iodide (C/sub 3/F/sub 7/I), continuous lasing at 1.315 ..mu..m for over 10 ms and peak power output of 10 W were obtained for a single static fill. Numerical simulations based on the kinetics of the iodine laser match well the experimentally observed lasing features. The laser was also operated with quasisteady flow for up to 200 ms at a 30-Hz pulse rate indicating the feasibility of continual lasing by flowing the lasant. Since an equivalent pumping power is obtainable from a modest-sized collector only 2 m in diameter, this research indicates that solar energy can be transformed effectively directly into a continuous laser output which may be useful for extended space communications, powering deep space or near-Earth missions, and possibly even supplying energy to the Earth.