An all solid-state 2-μm laser system for space coherent wind lidar

Author

Yu, Jirong ; Singh, Upendra N. ; Barnes, Norman P. ; Barnes, J.C. ; Petros, Mulugeta ; Phillips, Mark W.

Author_Institution

NASA Langley Res. Center, Hampton, VA, USA

Volume

3

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

27

Abstract

We describe a 2-μm diode-pumped, room temperature Ho:Tm:YLF laser and end-pumped amplifier system. The Ho:Tm:YLF oscillator utilized a multiple folded resonator with eight mirrors. A Q-switched output energy of 109 mJ pulse was obtained at 6 Hz. This new design makes the laser a smaller size, which can be used in space application. The effects of the laser operating temperature, thermal focusing and resonator structure rigidity on the performance of the laser were also investigated. In order to increase the laser system energy and efficiency, an end-pumped Ho:Tm:YLF disk amplifier was designed. Preliminary results showed that the efficiency of this laser amplifier could be better than 3% during Q-switch operation, a factor of three increase over side-pumped amplifier configuration. The laser system performance and its potential use for remote sensing of wind are presented

Keywords

Q-switching; atmospheric techniques; holmium; laser cavity resonators; lithium compounds; meteorological radar; optical radar; remote sensing by laser beam; solid lasers; thulium; wind; yttrium compounds; 109 mJ; 2 mum; 6 Hz; LiYF4:Ho,Tm; Q-switch operation; Q-switched output energy; Space coherent wind lidar; YLF:Ho,Tm; diode-pumped room-temperature Ho:Tm:YLF laser; end-pumped Ho:Tm:YLF disk amplifier; laser operating temperature; mirrors; multiple folded resonator; remote sensing; resonator structure rigidity; solid-state 2-μm laser system; thermal focusing; wind sensing; Diodes; Mirrors; Operational amplifiers; Optical design; Optical pulses; Oscillators; Pulse amplifiers; Solid lasers; Solid state circuits; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference Proceedings, 2000 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5846-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2000.879827

Filename

879827