Mobile terawatt laser propagation facility (Conference Presentation)

Lawrence Shah; Patrick Roumayah; Nathan Bodnar; Joshua D. Bradford; Douglas Maukonen; Martin C. Richardson

doi:10.1117/12.2253736

21 April 2017 Mobile terawatt laser propagation facility (Conference Presentation)

Lawrence Shah, Patrick Roumayah, Nathan Bodnar, Joshua D. Bradford, Douglas Maukonen, Martin C. Richardson

Proceedings Volume 10082, Solid State Lasers XXVI: Technology and Devices; 1008218 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2253736
Event: SPIE LASE, 2017, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

This presentation will describe the design and construction status of a new mobile high-energy femtosecond laser systems producing 500 mJ, 100 fs pulses at 10 Hz. This facility is built into a shipping container and includes a cleanroom housing the laser system, a separate section for the beam director optics with a retractable roof, and the environmental control equipment necessary to maintain stable operation. The laser system includes several innovations to improve the utility of the system for “in field” experiments. For example, this system utilizes a fiber laser oscillator and a monolithic chirped Bragg grating stretcher to improve system robustness/size and employs software to enable remote monitoring and system control. Uniquely, this facility incorporates a precision motion-controlled gimbal altitude-azimuth mount with a coudé path to enable aiming of the beam over a wide field of view. In addition to providing the ability to precisely aim at multiple targets, it is also possible to coordinate the beam with separate tracking/diagnostic sensing equipment as well as other laser systems. This mobile platform will be deployed at the Townes Institute Science and Technology Experimental Facility (TISTEF) located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to utilize the 1-km secured laser propagation range and the wide array of meteorological instrumentation for atmospheric and turbulence characterization. This will provide significant new data on the propagation of high peak power ultrashort laser pulses and detailed information on the atmospheric conditions in a coastal semi-tropical environment.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Lawrence Shah, Patrick Roumayah, Nathan Bodnar, Joshua D. Bradford, Douglas Maukonen, and Martin C. Richardson "Mobile terawatt laser propagation facility (Conference Presentation)", Proc. SPIE 10082, Solid State Lasers XXVI: Technology and Devices, 1008218 (21 April 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2253736

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KEYWORDS

Laser systems engineering

Atmospheric propagation

Control systems

Laser beam propagation

Femtosecond phenomena

Fiber Bragg gratings

Fiber lasers

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