Novel Compact Short-Pulse Eyesafe Transmitter

Compact, rugged and efficient imaging ladar transceivers are required for future autonomous navigation and missile guidance systems. Current systems do not simultaneously satisfy requirements for transceiver size, weight, prime-power, robustness and highrange resolution. In particular, the ladar transmitter must provide ~1ns eyesafe pulses to resolve <20cm depth for typical target features. Low gain in Q-switched erbium lasers prevents 1ns pulse operation; mode-locked lasers are not sufficiently robust;OPOs suffer from sensitivity to phase-mismatch, pump parameters, and build-up time which inhibit efficient 1ns pulse generation; and conventional bulk nanosecond Raman lasers are complex for FLASH imaging and inefficient for