A 65 W quasi-continuous-wave microsecond-pulse solid-state sodium beacon laser tuned to the sodium D2a line has been developed with a linewidth of 0.3 GHz, beam quality of M2=1.38, and pulse width of 120 μs at a repetition rate of 500 Hz by sum-frequency mixing 1319 and 1064 nm diode-pumped Nd:YAG master-oscillator power-amplifier systems. The laser wavelength stability is less than ±0.15 GHz through feedback controlling. The laser spiking due to relaxation oscillations is suppressed by inserting frequency doublers in both 1319 and 1064 nm oscillators. Sodium D2b re-pumping is accomplished by tuning the frequency of the electro-optic modulator with the right D2a-D2b offset. A bright sodium laser guide star with a photon return of 1820 photons/cm2/s was achieved with the laser system when a 32 W circular polarized beam was projected to the sky during our field test at the Xinglong Observatory.

We describe the results of our efforts in suppressing spiking of a high power, high beam quality 1319 nm Nd:YAG microsecond-pulse laser with three different intracavity frequency doublers. The 1319 nm laser is generated by a quasi-continuous-wave diode-pumped Nd:YAG ring laser system. One potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP), two KTPs and one lithium triborate (LBO) as frequency doublers are installed in the ring resonator and tested, respectively. At 800 Hz repetition rate, with a pulse width of 100 µs, performances of spiking suppression for each case are observed. The average output power are 23.6 W, 22.7 W and 23.4 W with beam quality factors of M 2 = 2.21, 1.28 and 1.25 for one KTP, two KTPs and one LBO, respectively. The corresponding brightness are 270 MW/(cm 2 •sr), 780 MW/(cm 2 •sr) and 860 MW/(cm 2 •sr). With better beam quality, higher brightness, and easier maintainability, the LBO is the best option of the three. A laser rate equation model including the insertion loss of the doubler is applied for theoretical analysis of the output temporal pulse shape and power, and the simulated results agree well with the experimental data.

Based on a mathematic model, the relation between the accuracy of the influence matrix and the performance of the wavefront correction is established. Based on the least squares method, a two-step system identification is proposed to improve the accuracy of the influence matrix, where the measurement noise can be suppressed and the nonlinearity of the deformable mirror can be compensated. The validity of the two-step system identification method is tested in the experiment, where improvements in wavefront correction precision as well as closed-loop control efficiency were observed.

A deformable mirror with actuators of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) is introduced in this paper. Due to the bidirectional thermal actuation property of the TEC, both upward and downward surface control is available for the DM. The response functions of the actuators are investigated. A close-loop wavefront control experiment is performed too, where the defocus and the astigmatism were corrected. The results reveal that there is a promising prospect for the novel design to be used in corrections of static aberrations, such as in the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF).

Compact high-power yellow laser is a critical part for sodium beacon adaptive optical systems. A narrow-linewidth quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) solid-state 589 nm laser with high-power and high beam quality simultaneously is investigated here, operating in hundreds-microsecond pulse duration with a tunable repetition rate of 400 to 1 kHz, which is flexible to allow the telescope to move in observing direction. The laser source is based on employing sum-frequency generation between 1319 and 1064 nm QCW Nd:YAG amplifiers. For a 100 µs pulse duration and 400 Hz repetition rate, the yellow laser provides a highest output power of 86.1 W with beam quality M2 = 1.37. The central wavelength can be precisely tuned to sodium-D2a line at 589.159 nm with a ∼440 MHz linewidth. This is the maximum power-reported for all-solid-state sodium guide star laser demonstrated to date. The result represents a key step toward solving the requirement of multi-conjugate adaptive optics for large adaptive optical telescopes.

We report a high-power diode-side-pumped rod Tm:YAG laser operated at either 2.07 or 2.02 µm depending on the transmission of pumped output coupler. The laser yields 115W of continuous-wave output power at 2.07 µm with 5% output coupling, which is the highest output power for all solid-state 2.07 μm cw rod Tm:YAG laser reported so far. With an output coupler of 10% transmission, the center wavelength of the laser is switched to 2.02 μm with an output power of 77.1 W. This is the first observation of high-power wavelength switchable diode-side-pumped rod Tm:YAG laser around 2 µm.

We demonstrate a compact, high-power, quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) end-pumped 1319 nm Nd:YAG slab amplifier laser with good beam quality. The laser is based on a QCW pulse Nd:YAG master oscillator and Nd:YAG slab amplifier with multi-pass zigzag architecture. The amplifier operates at a pulse repetition frequency of 500 Hz and pulse width of ∼105  μs, delivering a maximum output power of 51.5 W under absorbed pump power of 217.8 W and corresponding to an extraction efficiency of 14.2%. The beam quality factor is measured to be Mx2=1.61 and My2=1.81 in the orthogonal directions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first compact, high-power, high-beam-quality QCW Nd:YAG amplifier at 1319 nm based on a multi-pass zigzag slab structure.

A first generation sodium Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics System (LGS-AOS) was developed and integrated into the Lijiang 1.8m telescope in 2013. The LGS-AOS has three sub-systems: (1) a 20 W long pulsed sodium laser, (2) a 300-millimeter-diameter laser launch telescope, and (3) a 37-element compact adaptive optics system. On 2014 January 25, we obtained high resolution images of an mV 8.18 star, HIP 43963, during the first light of the LGS-AOS. In this paper, the sodium laser, the laser launch telescope, the compact adaptive optics system and the first light results will be presented.