High-Pulse-Rate Green Laser for Undersea Communication

The Navy needs lasers for applications in high-data-rate communication between mobile platforms both above and below water. Given the transmissive properties of water and the desire to obtain large data rates, the lasers must operate in the blue-green wavelength region and be pulsed with nanosecond durations at rates ranging from 100’s to 1000’s of kHz. The nature of the communications operating platforms requires the lasers to be low in power consumption, small, lightweight, rugged and reliable. Q-Peak proposes to develop an innovative, scalable, all-solid-state laser configuration that will meet the stated requirements through a unique combination of components and technology.BENEFITS: The technology to be developed and the system to be built will have direct application to future Navy communications systems, and potential application to commercial underwater communication links. Likely commercial spin-offs are in precision machining and laser-based display systems.