AFRL Advanced Electric Lasers Branch: Construction and Upgrade of a 50-watt Facility-Class Sodium Guidestar Pump Laser

Abstract

The development of a reliable and effective laser source for pumping mesospheric sodium to generate an artificial guidestar has been well documented. From the early achievements with 589nm high-power dye lasers at the Keck and Lick observatories to the ground-breaking 50W CW FASOR (Frequency Addition Source of Optical Radiation) Guidestar at the Air Force?s Starfire Optical Range (SOR), there has been intense interest in this technology from both the academic and military communities. Beginning in the fall of 2008, the Air Force Research Laboratory?s Advanced Electric Lasers Branch began a project to build, test, verify and deliver an upgraded version of the SOR FASOR for use at the AF Maui Optical Station (AMOS) in the summer of 2010. This device, called ?FASOR-X? will be similar in design to the existing SOR device and produce 50W of diffraction limited, linearly polarized narrow linewidth 589nm light by combining the output of two injection-locked Nd:YAG ring lasers (operating at 1064nm and 1319nm) using resonant sum-frequency generation in a lithium triborate crystal (LBO). This upgraded system will include features such as modularized sub-components, embedded control electronics, and a simplified cooling system. The first portion of this upgrade project is to test and build the two injection laser cavities while validating the improved control mechanisms FASOR-X will employ. In parallel with this effort, the technical plans for the modularization and re-packaging of the FASOR will be finalized and coordinated with the staff at Maui. This paper summarizes the results of these efforts to date and provides updates on the AMOS FASOR-X status. Additionally AFRL plans for next-generation guidestar pump sources will be discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA531724

Entities

People

  • Art Lucero
  • Dave Gallant
  • Harold Miller
  • Jeff Baker
  • Jonathan Stohs
  • T. J. Bronder

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adaptive Optics
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Amplifiers
  • Construction
  • Control Systems
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Diffraction
  • Frequency
  • Laser Resonators
  • Lasers
  • Light Amplifiers
  • Military Research
  • Packaging
  • Ring Lasers
  • Scattering
  • Solid State Lasers

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Microelectronics