Diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers in Q-switched and cavity-dumped Q-switched operation

Thomas, G. M.; Minassian, A.; Sheng, Xia; Damzen, M. J.

doi:10.1364/oe.24.027212

Cited by 64 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers presented here comprises, besides the mirrors, a Faraday rotator and a Pockels cell which requirements are fulfilled by the components developed at the ILT for spaceborne operation. Changing the Pockels cell crystal from KD * P to BBO should be possible since BBO was already used in Q-switched Alexandrite lasers before [16].…”

Section: Optomechanical Components For Spaceborne Lasers At Iltmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Strotkamp

Munk

Jungbluth

et al. 2019

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work the first diode-pumped Alexandrite ring laser in Q-switched single-longitudinal mode (SLM) operation is presented. A carefully designed and complex ring resonator with several functional components is combined with an innovative pumping scheme with high-power red laser diodes.The spectral and energetic suitability of a first laser was demonstrated in hundreds of operating hours and, with a novel mobile lidar system, by the first measurements in the atmosphere by means of a diode-pumped Alexandrite laser, yielding data from the stratosphere to the mesosphere.An improved laser yields a pulse energy of 1.7 mJ at a repetition rate of 500 Hz with an excellent beam quality of M 2 < 1.1. By seeding the resonator with a narrow-band diode laser, SLM operation with a linewidth below 4 MHz is achieved. The electro-optical efficiency of 2 % is the highest archived for all Alexandrite lasers in SLM operation and reasonable for space-operation.The performance analysis as well as benchmarking with the space-qualified mounting technology point out the TRL and the remaining effort of development of the technology. INTRODUCTIONUnderstanding temperature distributions and wind fields in the atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 110 km, i.e. the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), is crucial for performing numerical simulations of the Earth's climate. The effects of gravity waves on the global wind system and atmospheric dynamics are hardly understood and item of research of space agencies and ground-based observations [1-6]. One well-established approach to provide such data is to measure the Doppler-broadened and -shifted resonance line of metal atoms, e.g. potassium (770 nm or 772 nm) [6,7], iron (386 nm) [8,9] and sodium (589 nm) [10][11][12], by means of a Doppler lidar.While localized measurements have been performed over the last 20 years from the ground and revealed fundamental deviations from the predicted conditions, there is no coverage of global scale by lidar. The development of a spaceborne resonance lidar instrument is deferred by the lack of laser sources at the demanded wavelengths that are suitable for spaceborne operation.The currently used Alexandrite (Cr 3+ :BeAl2O4) lasers with their broad tunability (700-800 nm) [13] are well suited for the generation of several interesting wavelengths, either operating at their fundamental wavelength or intra-cavity frequency-doubled. The flashlamp-pumped Alexandrite ring lasers operating in Q-switched single-longitudinal mode (SLM) operation are commonly used as beam sources in resonance potassium and iron resonance lidar systems [6][7][8][9].However the usage of flashlamps as pump source makes them unsuitable for spaceborne operation, due to the poor efficiency and limited lifetime. One hopeful approach to overcome these drawbacks is by replacing the flashlamps with diode lasers [14,15]. Recently, new basic investigations in the field of diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers have been conducted with focus on altimetry lidar and vegetation monitoring (red-edge) [...

show abstract

Section: Optomechanical Components For Spaceborne Lasers At Iltmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One hopeful approach to overcome these drawbacks is by replacing the flashlamps with diode lasers [14,15]. Recently, new basic investigations in the field of diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers have been conducted with focus on altimetry lidar and vegetation monitoring (red-edge) [16] and resonance lidar [17].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Strotkamp

Munk

Jungbluth

et al. 2019

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, no publications on radiation testing were found for the pump diode emitter material and the Alexandrite crystal, so space qualification of the pump diodes and the laser medium is still pending. Changing the Pockels cell crystal from KD * P to BBO, which has already been space qualified, should be possible since BBO was already used in Q-switched Alexandrite lasers before [16]. The TGG crystal used for the Faraday rotator is also already qualified for space operation.…”

Section: Suitability For Spaceborne Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser for next generation satellite-based earth observation lidar

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work, the design of a diode-pumped Alexandrite ring laser in Q-switched single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation for a spaceborne lidar mission is presented. The laser is pumped by a self-developed fiber-coupled laser diode pump device and yields a pulse energy of 1.7 mJ at a repetition rate of 500 Hz with an excellent beam quality of M 2 < 1.1. By seeding the resonator with a narrow band diode laser, SLM operation with a linewidth of approximately 10 MHz is achieved. The electrooptical efficiency of 2% is the highest achieved for all Alexandrite lasers in SLM operation and reasonable for space operation. The performance analysis as well as benchmarking with the space-qualified mounting technology points out the TRL and the remaining effort for the development of the technology. An estimation of the requirements for a spaceborne resonance lidar mission underlines the suitability of such a lidar system with a diode-pumped Alexandrite laser as the beam source.

show abstract

“…Recently, in our prior work at Imperial College, continuous-wave (cw) red diode-pumped Alexandrite laser with greater than 26W of average output power was obtained and the first active Q-switching with an electrooptic Pockels cell was achieved [2,18]. Interestingly, the first femtosecond Kerr-lens mode-locked Alexandrite laser was recently reported in [4] producing pulses as short as 170 fs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser with passive SESAM Q-switching and wavelength tunability

Parali

Sheng

Minassian³

et al. 2018

Optics Communications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report the first experimental demonstration of a wavelength tunable passively Q-switched red-diode-end pumped Alexandrite laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). We present the results of the study of passive SESAM Q-switching and wavelength-tuning in continuous diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers in both linear cavity and X-cavity configurations. In the linear cavity configuration, pulsed operation up to 27 kHz repetition rate in fundamental TEM00 mode was achieved and maximum average power was 41 mW. The shortest pulse generated was 550 ns (FWHM) and the Q-switched wavelength tuning band spanned was between 740 nm and 755 nm. In the X-cavity configuration, a higher average power up to 73 mW, and obtained with higher pulse energy 6.5 J at 11.2 kHz repetition rate, in fundamental TEM00 mode with excellent spatial quality M2 < 1.1. The Q-switched wavelength tuning band spanned was between 775 nm and 781 nm

show abstract

Diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers in Q-switched and cavity-dumped Q-switched operation

Cited by 64 publications

References 16 publications

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser for next generation satellite-based earth observation lidar

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser with passive SESAM Q-switching and wavelength tunability

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About