Q-switches for laser ignition applications must meet a unique set of requirements. The inherent challenges to providing
extremely reliable, compact, practical, and cost effective devices are daunting. The capabilities and limitations of various
passive and active technologies will be explored and compared against generic laser driven ignition requirements.
Emphasis will be placed on providing practical limits of operation to guide systems design. These include alignment
sensitivity, voltage/power requirements, laser induced damage, the effects of extreme temperature, shock and vibration,
mechanical mounting strain, and piezoelectric driven ringing. An example of a new Q-switch suitable for mid-IR lasers,
which may improve ignition, will be described.
Techniques are presented to model optical nonlinear frequency conversion of highly distorted beams with M-squared values as high as 30. Random superpositions of Gaussian-Hermite modes are used to create the field distributions of the incident beams. Split-step Fourier transform techniques are used for the calculation of nonlinear conversion.
A review of measurement techniques and nonlinear coefficient values are presented. Coefficients of a few materials are evolving as standards by consensus based on independent measurements. Improved instrumentation, extension of measurement techniques, and more detailed analysis are improving accuracy in recent measurements. Confusion still remains for values of some materials, and specification of the reporting frame for the tensor values remains an issue.
Observed thermal lensing in AgGaSe$2 and ZnGeP$2 is compared with theoretical predictions of the thermal gradients and resulting laser beam aberrations. Accurate simulation of the thermo-optical behavior of these crystals is important for scaling high-average-power mid-IR 3-wave mixing applications.
Numerical simulation of high average power 3-wave mixing is applied to mid-IR parametric generation and compared with experiment. Aberration compensation and efficiency improvements are discussed.
Conference Committee Involvement (4)
Optical Technologies for Arming, Safing, Fuzing, and Firing VI
2 August 2010 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Technologies for Arming, Safing, Fuzing, and Firing V
5 August 2009 | San Diego, California, United States
Laser Sources and Enabling Materials
13 June 2006 | Dayton, Ohio, United States
Nonlinear Optics for High-Speed Electronics and Optical Frequency Conversion/Nonharmonic Optical Frequency Conversion: Parametric Oscillatiors and Related Devices
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