Spectrally Pure Stable Ruggedized Master Oscillator for Airborne Coherent Ladar

ABSTRACT:High-power, compact, low noise, high stability, narrow-linewidth lasers are needed for coherent LADAR systems including synthetic aperture imaging, remote vibrometry, holographic imaging as well as radar, navigation, and timing. Since LADARs are usually used on moving platforms, the insensitivity of the laser to vibration and acceleration is extremely important. In addition, there is a need in sub-kHz linewidth, small footprint, highly coherent diode lasers with long term frequency stability which would be beneficial in many areas of optics including radio frequency (RF) photonic link applications, communications, metrology, and spectroscopy. The objective of Phase I of this SBIR project is to define and develop a design, and demonstrate a protoype model of a low noise, narrow-linewidth laser/master oscillator for coherent LADAR system applications on air platforms.BENEFIT:The anticipated market segments for the 2 Micron ultra-low frequency noise semiconductor laser source include carbon dioxide and other gas destection, coherent LIDAR, frequency conversion, optical metrology and spectroscopy, as well as free-space optical communication applications. The lasers can be of great interest for insertion into airborne and space applications. Since the proposed technology can be easily extended to different wavelengths, the narrow linewidth lasers also could be useful for oil and gas exploration, structural health monitoring, security and sensing, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, and various other fiber optic sensing markets. All these market segments need laser sources with improved phase/frequency noise performance in smaller, less expensive packages.