Overview on the chemical oxygen-iodine laser technology

The 'Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser' (COIL) has passed through a tremendous development from the first milliwatt to a multi-kilowatt power, and thus offered a great opportunity for investigations in the COIL technology based on a multidisciplinary science. This overview has been aimed at a demonstration of enormous endeavor of the international COIL community in the last years to bring this laser system soon to the end-users by a focusing on advanced concepts of the hardware design, improvement and scaling-up the existing facilities. The overall COIL technology is considered as a sequence of the coexistent technologies of main laser components with a mutual impact: a technology of the singlet oxygen generator, gasdynamic mixing and expansion nozzle, energy extraction and optical resonator, and the exhaust and pressure recovery system. Advanced concepts of the named technologies based on inherent supporting research disciplines - a computational modeling, kinetic studies and diagnostic techniques - are briefly described. A critical insight into the COIL performance via an energy flow, energy losses, power extraction, and a chemical efficiency of this laser system utilizes the established heuristic phenomenology. The paper ends with a reference to developed projects and suggested potential applications of the chemical oxygen-iodine laser technology.