THIS SBIR IS DEVELOPING HIGH-EFFICIENCY, HIGH BEAM-QUALITY ND LASERS AND NON-LINEAR WAVELENGTH CONVERSION T…

Public award description

THIS SBIR IS DEVELOPING HIGH-EFFICIENCY, HIGH BEAM-QUALITY ND LASERS AND NON-LINEAR WAVELENGTH CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES SUITABLE FOR OZONE, AEROSOL, OXYGEN, CO2, WATER VAPOR AND WIND LIDAR. THE ADVANCED SOLID-STATE LASER TECHNOLOGY PROPOSED DIRECTLY SUPPORTS EARTH SCIENCE DECADAL STUDY PROGRAMS FOR AEROSOLS AND CLOUDS (ACE), GLOBAL WIND (3D-WINDS) AND ADVANCED MULTI-BEAM ALTIMETRY AND VEGETATION CANOPY MISSIONS (DESDYNI, LIST). WE PROPOSE TO INCREASE THE WALL-PLUG EFFICIENCY OF FIELDABLE 1UM LASERS FROM 4-6% INTO THE 12-16% RANGE, DRASTICALLY REDUCING THE ELECTRICAL POWER NEEDED FOR SATELLITE MISSIONS. FOR THE SAME SATELLITE BUS THIS MEANS THAT POWER WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT ANOTHER LIDAR SYSTEM, RADAR OR OTHER INSTRUMENTS - GREATLY INCREASING THE SCIENCE MISSION VALUE. THE CLOSELY RELATED NON-LINEAR WAVELENGTH CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY CAN ALSO ENABLE DIRECT RANGE-RESOLVED CO2 MEASUREMENT AND/OR OXYGEN LIDARS THAT SUPPORT CO2 PRESSURE AND DENSITY DETERMINATIONS. THE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED WILL ALSO SUPPORT SUB-ORBITAL FLIGHT MISSIONS FOR OZONE, WATER VAPOR, AND HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION LIDAR (HRSL) SYSTEMS FOR ADVANCED AEROSOL MEASUREMENTS.