Extreme Repetition Rate, Ultrafast Laser System

Current high energy laser (HEL) weapon systems primarily consist of continuous wave (CW) laser sources with output powers in the many kilowatts range. These CW laser-based weapons simply melt targets. However, ultrashort pulse laser (USPL) systems offer an attractive alternative because of their ability to neutralize threats via a few distinct mechanisms, such as the ablation of material from the target, the blinding of sensors through broadband supercontinuum generation in the air, and the generation of localized electronic interference used to overload a threat’s internal electronics. Further, the propagation of light from ultra-short pulses holds unique advantages. The high intensities in high peak power laser pulses can cause a non-linear effect in air resulting in a self-focusing filament. These filaments propagate without diffraction, which provides a potential solution to the negative impact turbulence has on beam quality that affects propagation of conventional CW beams.Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) will develop a robust ultrafast, high peak power laser system that is able to operate in burst mode with burst repetition rates of 1 GHz or above. The peak power will be sufficient to demonstrate plasma filamentation in the air.