Caveats and pitfalls of high energy UV laser operation on ground

Mondin, L.; Wernham, Denny; Era, Fabio; Kheyrandish, H.; Bolkhovitinov, A.; Mateo, Ana Baselga; Ciapponi, Alessandra; Heese, C.; Ivanov, Ts.; Hippler, Markus; Thibault, Dominique; Papendrecht, G. Van; Riede, Wolfgang; Butenko, Yu. V.; Schröder, H.

doi:10.1117/12.2296209

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(3 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This type of laser has the disadvantage of being sensitive to vibrations due to the number of free space optics and the presence of piezo-monitored optics to maintain the laser cavity adapted to the injected wavelength. These challenges have led to significant developments for DELICAT Laser (similar to WALES (Wirth et al, 2009)) and AEOLUS laser (even though, in this case, the difficulty also involved the space environment (Mondin et al, 2017)). In this regard, fiber laser systems can lead to better performances for on-board direct detection wind lidar.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of a direct detection UV wind lidar architecture for 3D wind reconstruction at high altitude

Boulant,

Michel,

Valla

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. An architecture for a UV wind lidar dedicated to measuring vertical and lateral wind in front of an aircraft for gust load alleviation is presented. To optimize performance and robustness, it includes a fiber laser architecture and a Quadri Mach-Zehnder (QMZ) interferometer with a robust design to spectrally analyze the backscattered light. Different lidar parameters have been selected to minimize the standard deviation of wind speed measurement projected onto the laser axis, calculated through end-to-end simulations of the instrument. The optimization involves selecting an emission/reception telescope to maximize the amount of collected photons backscattered between 100 m and 300 m, a background filter to reduce noise from the scene, and photo-multiplier tubes (PMT) to minimize detection noise. Simulations were performed to evaluate lidar performance as a function of laser parameters. This study led to the selection of three laser architectures: a commercial solid-state laser, a design of a fiber laser, and a hybrid fiber laser resulting in standard deviations of 0.18 m/s, 0.17 m/s, and 0.09 m/s, respectively, at 10 km of altitude. To reconstruct the vertical and lateral wind on the flight path, the lidar is addressed to four different directions to measure four different projections of the wind. We calculate analytically (and validate through simulations) the addressing angle with respect to the flight direction that minimizes the root mean squared error (RMSE) between the reconstructed vertical and lateral wind components and the actual ones, assuming turbulence that follows the Von Karman turbulence model. We found that the optimum angle for an estimation at 100 m is about 50°, resulting in an improvement of about 50 % compared to an angle of 15°–20° typically used in current studies.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of a direct detection UV wind lidar architecture for 3D wind reconstruction at high altitude

Boulant,

Michel,

Valla

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over the past few decades, it has been shown that laser-induced contamination (LIC) acts as an absorber on the surface of optics, leading to lower laser damage thresholds (LDT's) and losses in transmission and reflection. For both spacebound [1] [2] and ground-based [3] systems, users and integrators of UV and/or femtosecond [4] optics must plan carefully to avoid LIC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

UV fatigue of laser optics: laser-induced contamination

Arnold¹,

Rashvand²,

Willis³

et al. 2022

Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Laser-induced contamination (LIC) can be a major concern of using UV laser systems. Surface contamination occurs via interactions between the UV laser and particulates, water vapor condensate, organics, and airborne molecular contaminates (AMC) from the environment or outgassing from system materials. A brief review of contamination of optics will lead into present results from long-term 355 nm quasi-CW laser transmission experiments at Edmund Optics. Time lapse microscopy was used to monitor nucleation and growth of surface contaminants. Laser burn boxes were constructed for use as a controlled UV LIC testbed; experimental results are presented on transmission losses for various material preparation methods.

show abstract

High-power and frequency-stable ultraviolet laser performance in space for the wind lidar on Aeolus

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global acquisition of atmospheric wind profiles using a spaceborne direct-detection Doppler wind lidar is being accomplished following the launch of European Space Agency’s Aeolus mission. One key part of the instrument is a single-frequency, ultraviolet laser that emits nanosecond pulses into the atmosphere. High output energy and frequency stability ensure a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio of the backscatter return and an accurate determination of the Doppler frequency shift induced by the wind. This Letter discusses the design of the laser transmitter for the first Doppler wind lidar in space and its performance during the first year of the Aeolus mission, providing valuable insights for upcoming space lidar missions.

show abstract

Caveats and pitfalls of high energy UV laser operation on ground

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Optimization of a direct detection UV wind lidar architecture for 3D wind reconstruction at high altitude

Optimization of a direct detection UV wind lidar architecture for 3D wind reconstruction at high altitude

UV fatigue of laser optics: laser-induced contamination

High-power and frequency-stable ultraviolet laser performance in space for the wind lidar on Aeolus

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About