Space-Hardened Seed Laser for Use in High Spectral Resolution Lidar Systems

The overall goal of the SBIR effort to develop a fully packaged, environmentally hardened, diode-based, locked wavelength, seed laser for seeding next generation Nd:YAG lasers currently being developed for future space-based, high spectral resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements. The Phase I effort successfully demonstrated that a diode-based, wavelength-locked seed laser can provide the spectral purity required for HSRL systems, and as part of the effort developed a baseline design for a seed laser module with a defined footprint that will integrate into NASAs High Energy UV Demonstrator. A direct diode, wavelength locked seed laser will reduce the overall size weight and power (SWaP) requirements of the HSRL laser transmitter, and accelerates the establishment of a US manufacturer of compact, robust, space-qualifiable diode-based seed lasers for use in future HSRL missions being developed at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), thus directly addressing the need for developing compact, efficient, lidar component technologies for use in space-based environments.