Tunable UV generation with a frequency-mixed type II OPO

Author

Higdon, N.S. ; Marsh, W.D.

Volume

3

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

35

Abstract

Remote measurements of atmospheric gases such as ozone from airborne and ground-based platforms are currently made with a wide variety of UV laser sources. The capabilities of these existing systems could be significantly enhanced if compact, efficient, reliable, high peak power, tunable solid state laser sources could be developed. Such developments would also enable these systems to be deployed in small aircraft or on orbiting Space platforms. We have produced 38 mJ pulses of UV laser radiation with a frequency-mixed type II KTA OPO in the 290-300 nm region. The OPO exhibits 42% slope efficiency. The entire transmitter fits into a lidar transceiver package consistent with the size constraints of an unmanned aeronautical vehicle (UAV). The conversion efficiency from 1064-nm pump to 300 nm for this laser system (7%) is among the highest reported

Keywords

airborne radar; atmospheric composition; atmospheric measuring apparatus; light sources; optical parametric oscillators; optical radar; remote sensing by laser beam; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; 1064 nm; 290 to 300 nm; 38 mJ; KTA OPO; UAV; UV laser sources; atmospheric gases; frequency-mixed type II OPO; lidar transceiver package; orbiting Space platforms; ozone; remote measurements; small aircraft; transmitter fits; tunable UV generation; tunable solid state laser sources; unmanned aeronautical vehicle; Atmospheric measurements; Current measurement; Extraterrestrial measurements; Frequency; Gas lasers; Gases; Power system reliability; Pump lasers; Tunable circuits and devices; Unmanned aerial vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference Proceedings, 2000 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5846-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2000.879828

Filename

879828