HIGH POWER LASER AMPLIFIER CHAIN TECHNIQUES.

Abstract

This report describes work directed toward the development of an optical radar transmitter using the masteroscillator-power-amplifier (MOPA) concept. The system will employ a CW YAG:Nd(3+) oscillator and a chain of amplifiers, taking advantage of the power-handling capability of neodymium-doped glass to produce adequate power for long distance surveillance. Because a laser amplifies equally well in both directions and generates noise by spontaneous decay, careful design is necessary to avoid regeneration in the amplifier chain, prevent amplifier noise in the reverse direction from swamping the oscillator, control depumping caused by superradiance, and provide a good signal-to-noise ratio in the transmitted signal. This report includes discussion of cw oscillator and pulsed amplifier designs, measurements of amplifier gain, and calculations of the limitations imposed by superradiance. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1965
Accession Number
AD0621979

Entities

People

  • G. L. Clark

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplifiers
  • Laser Amplifiers
  • Laser Radar
  • Lasers
  • Measurement
  • Neodymium
  • Oscillators
  • Power Amplifiers
  • Radar
  • Radar Transmitters
  • Surveillance
  • Transmitters

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy