8.1 Inhomogeneities in Cylindrical Cells

The short ranges of fission fragments causes a specific energy deposition inhomo­geneities which, along with excited gas heat exchange with laser cell walls, leads to spatial density redistribution, i. e., to the violation of active medium optical homo­geneity. As noted in paper [1], with a reference to the 1980 report of A. N. Sizov and Yu. N. Deryugin, numerical and theoretical investigations of the dynamics of optical inhomogeneity origination and development in nuclear-pumped lasers first began at the VNIIEF. During first stage, these investigations only pertained to the phenomena occurring in sealed lasers excited by pulsed neutron fluxes. This important aspect of NPLs is discussed in this chapter.