Compact Power Amplifier for Hybrid Fiber/Bulk Wind Lidar Transmitters

Measuring global winds from space using eye-safe coherent laser radar is an important on-going NASA technology and instrument development effort that will ultimately improve the fidelity of meteorological climate models, near-term weather forecasting, and commercial aviation management and optimization.nbsp; Activities like NASA LaRCrsquo;s ldquo;Wind-SPrdquo; coherent lidar program are pushing these laser and lidar technologies forward with regard to high-energy eye-safe transmitter lasers, low-noise fast-tunable master and local oscillator lasers, improved lidar photoreceivers, and active optical alignment and lag-angle compensation functionalities specific to space-based applications.nbsp; Specifically in this proposal, Beyond Photonics plans to develop a compact next-generation Power Amplifier/Transceiver Module for current and future NASA missions focused on lidar systems in the short-wave infrared wavelength region near two microns. nbsp;We will emphasize the design and development of very compact and alignment-insensitive Ho:YLF/LuLF amplifiers operating near 2.05 micro;m, monolithically integrated with very compact lidar transmit/receive optics and photonics, and capitalize optimally on very efficient hybrid fiber/bulk-crystal MOPA designs.nbsp; Efficient, compact approaches using optimally-configured Tm:fiber-based front end transmitters and preamplifiers followed by dual-pass Tm bulk crystal amplification will be a focus to reach flexible performance on the order of 40 mJ/pulse, 400 Hz PRF, and high beam quality, which can serve as an effective transmitter for many upcoming NASA remote-sensing applications.nbsp; Operationally flexible, low-SWaP path-to-space approaches will be emphasized.nbsp; These innovations will apply directly to current NASA missions and instruments (Doppler wind lidar, IPDA, LAS) and accelerate commercial development and availability of practical ground-based and airborne systems (e.g. compact airborne CO2 concentration-measuring instruments) at BP and elsewhere.