High-efficiency UV laser for space-based wind lidar

Floyd E. Hovis; Jinxue Wang

doi:10.1117/12.720251

3 May 2007 High-efficiency UV laser for space-based wind lidar

Floyd E. Hovis, Jinxue Wang

Proceedings Volume 6555, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications; 655504 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.720251
Event: Defense and Security Symposium, 2007, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Lidar based measurements of clear air winds from space requires a high efficiency UV laser transmitter. We have developed a prototype of the required transmitter that uses third harmonic generation from a diode pumped Nd:YAG laser to achieve the desired UV output. Our approach uses a single-frequency Nd:YAG master oscillator/power amplifier as the primary pump source. The system is diode pumped and conductively cooled for compatibility with space-based operation. We use a variation of the ramp and fire technique to injection seed the master oscillator. The space-qualifiable electronics provide user control of the injection seeding, diode pump power, and operational modes of the laser. The 1064 nm laser transmitter has been demonstrated to achieve a true system level wall plug efficiency of 6.4% for a q-switched output power of 44 W at 50 Hz. We use high efficiency doubling and sum frequency mixing of the 1064 nm pump to generate 24 W of 355 nm output. This result implies a third harmonic optical to optical generation efficiency of 55% and a system level efficiency of 3.5%. In this paper we report on the design and testing of this laser transmitter.

Citation Download Citation

Floyd E. Hovis and Jinxue Wang "High-efficiency UV laser for space-based wind lidar", Proc. SPIE 6555, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications, 655504 (3 May 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.720251

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