Patent ID: 7469710

Claim:
A supersonic diffuser adapted to increase the static pressure of a supersonic flow of a gas from a laser having a laser cavity and a longitudinal axis, the diffuser comprising: a flow of the gas output from the laser cavity that is substantially free of strong pressure gradients; a substantially rectangular inlet that receives the gas; a top wall extending from the inlet in the direction of the flow of the gas; a bottom wall extending from the inlet in the direction of the flow of the gas, said top wall and said bottom wall separated by a height (l 1 ) at the inlet and connected by two side walls, said side walls separated by a width (h), wherein the ratio of height to width ranges at the inlet from about 0.001 to about 1; and a compression region formed by the top wall, bottom wall and side walls, wherein each of the top and bottom walls are in the shape of a streamline that is asymmetric about the longitudinal axis of the diffuser, and wherein the height between the top and bottom walls decreases along at least a portion of the diffuser in the direction of the flow of the gas at a rate so that the gas is substantially free of boundary-layer separation throughout the diffuser.