Design study for an optical intersatellite link transmitter

The authors have shown an interesting application of waveguide modulators in a spaceborne laser transmitter in the attempt to minimise the electrical power consumption. To obtain 50-100 mW of output power a basic configuration would consist of a 200 mW Nd:host oscillator plus a waveguide modulator. In order to achieve an output power of 500-600 mW an optical amplifier will be needed. Bulk modulators seem to be suitable for those applications where several watts of optical power are necessary since only in this case their power consumption becomes acceptable in the overall power balance