Time-Dependent Kinetic-Thermodynamic Description of a Nonequilibrium Molecular System: The HF Chemical Laser

Abstract

Chemical lasers are complex nonequilibrium molecular systems governed by a variety of reactive, radiative and collisional rate processes. In this abstract which briefly summarizes a few recent studies [1–4] we are concerned with the kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of the time evolution of chemical laser systems. Our objectives are: To demonstrate the analytic and predictive value of the kinetic description of chemical lasers; to introduce a complementary, time-dependent, thermodynamic description and to provide a thermodynamic interpretation to the role of the hierarchy of rate processes in nonequilibrium systems in determining the efficiency of converting internal energy into work. The thermodynamic work extracted from lasers is represented by the laser radiation [5–7]. The F+H₂ → HF+H chemical laser is employed as a specific example.