THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE A LOW-AVERAGE POWER, PUL…

Public award description

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE A LOW-AVERAGE POWER, PULSED, SINGLE-FREQUENCY, 2-UM HO-LASER SOURCE FOR APPLICATION AS A FRONT END IN COHERENT LIDAR SYSTEMS. DEVELOPMENT OF SUCH PULSED SEED SOURCES IS CRITICAL FOR THE DESIGN OF COMPACT, RUGGED, RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT LIDAR TRANSMITTERS BASED ON ALL-AMPLIFIER ARCHITECTURE. PULSED OPERATION OF THE HO-OSCILLATOR IS ACHIEVED VIA PASSIVE Q-SWITCHING USING ROBUST CR2+-DOPED SATURABLE ABSORBERS. SUCH SEED OSCILLATORS ALLOW GENERATION OF NS-WIDTH PULSE TRAINS AT KHZ REPETITION RATES. DIRECT DIODE-PUMPING USING THE LATEST 1.9-UM DIODE LASER TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES IMPROVED OSCILLATOR RELIABILITY AND COMPACTNESS. THE CHOICE OF A 2-UM HO-LASER MATERIAL (AS OPPOSED TO 1.5-UM ER-LASERS) ENABLES EFFICIENT POWER/ENERGY SCALING OF THE PULSED SEED OSCILLATOR OUTPUT IN HIGH-GAIN HO-AMPLIFIERS. THIS APPROACH DECREASES THE NUMBER OF AMPLIFYING STAGES, SIMPLIFIES THE OVERALL DESIGN AND PACKAGING, AND IMPROVES THE ELECTRICAL EFFICIENCY OF THE COMPLETE LASER SYSTEM AS COMPARED TO THE CURRENT TECHNOLOGY.