Modeling and numerical approximations of optical activity in the chemical oxygen-iodine laser

The chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) has several important military and industrial applications. The concern of this work is to develop a partial differential equation model describing optical behavior in the COIL. Optical behavior of the COIL has traditionally been investigated via a ray tracing method. Photons are represented as discrete particles, and their behavior is described by the geometry of the system. We develop an optical model wherein photons have a wave description. In order to construct the mathematical model, we utilize the theory of paraxial wave optics and Gaussian beams. Doing so allows us to incorporate physical effects such as diffusion/diffraction and refraction into the model. After describing the optical model, we present numerical methods for obtaining approximate solutions to the model in the cases of one and two transverse directions. Results are presented illustrating the efficacy of the numerical methods.