Process and apparatus for reacting laser radiation with a reactive medium

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Reaction of laser radiation and a reactive medium is conducted by reflecting a hollow conical beam of the radiation back and forth between two aspheric mirrors. This gives a long path length for the radiation passing through the medium although the length of the reaction zone i.e. the distance, between the mirrors may be comparatively small. By selection of the curvature of the mirrors, the radiation flux density can be controlled so that it is substantially uniform or so that it exhibits a pre-determined cylindrically symmetrical variation across the width of the reaction chamber and this, distribution of the flux density can be matched to the distribution of availability of reactive …