Electric Oxygen Iodine Laser Diagnostics

The United States Air Force has a critical need for a spectroscopic diagnostic device to detect and record quantitative measurements for species found in an Electric Oxygen Iodine Laser (EOIL). As a solution to this problem, we propose using the sensitive spectroscopic detection method of Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy (SRS). To our knowledge, the SRS technique has never been used as an Oxygen Iodine Laser diagnostics. SRS was discovered over 40 years ago. However, the method has received only a limited number of experimental applications due to the expense and complexity of the lasers required. Modern advances in laser systems have produced diode lasers that are tunable, single mode, very stable, and compact. Nd:YAG lasers have become compact, can be single mode, and can operate at high pulsed rates. These types of devices were not available until recently and we believe that they could be used to develop a compact sensitive Stimulated Raman diagnostics. In this proposal, we will perform SRS experiments and use computer models to simulate the data. These models will be used to determine the lower detection limit and prove feasibility of the technique. Optimum SRS parameters would be essential to the development of a Phase II prototype.