Abstract
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 M2 < 1.1. By seeding the resonator with a narrow band diode laser, SLM operation with a linewidth of approximately 10 MHz is achieved. The electro-optical 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.
Highlights
Understanding 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 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]
Beside the tentative mechanical setup and the non-optimized folding for a small footprint, the results indicate that the mirror mounts developed at ILT for spaceborne lasers with tilting < 10 μrad will suffice to set up the resonator
Summary
Understanding 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. 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 [17,18,19,20,21]. Another approach to address a resonance line of iron with a lidar system is the usage of a Nd:YAG laser operating at 372 nm (third harmonic of 1116 nm) [9]. The first system uses the second harmonic of a Ramanshifted Nd:YVO4 laser [11], and the second system is mixing the output of two Nd:YAG lasers: one emitting at 1064 nm and one at 1319 nm [12]
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