Instead of using the explosively released energy directly, one may use it to pump some lasing material spatially separated from the high explosive.
The high explosive is arranged in a layered zigzag pattern, ignited from both sides with triggered flash lamps.
The electrical charge used to initiate the small piece of high explosive is no longer a negligible energy source.
For the direct conversion of the chemical energy into a laser pulse, the high explosive must be simultaneously ignited throughout the entire volume it occupies.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that a clean spherical detonation can be formed in the high explosive before the blast wave travels into the gas.
A very different way a laser can be pumped by a high explosive is with a magneto-hydrodynamic dynamo generating multi-megampere currents, which have to pass through a lasing material.
In this case, a shockwave is generated from the detonation of 100 to 200g of a high explosive, which is launched into a gas filled glass cylinder.
That agreement will run for 21 years and will allow continued high explosive firing until 1998, as well as greater public access.
