Ultrafast Laser System for the Study of Combustion, High-Speed Flow, Plasma, and Detonation Processes
Abstract
Accurately characterizing the complex processes in combustion systems, unsteady flows, plasmas, and detonations is critical for supporting systems relevant to the Air Force. Vector quantities like flow velocities and scalar quantities like temperature, pressure, species concentrations, droplet sizes, and electron densities, are especially important for understanding the underlying physical kinetics, validating models, and improving system performance. Today, most laser diagnostic techniques utilize continuous output lasers, diode pumped solid-state laser systems, high power nanosecond pulsed lasers, and dye laser systems to make these measurements. These systems, however, do not have the peak power, short pulse width, or transform-limited bandwidth required for maximizing nonlinear optical processes, eliminating non-resonant backgrounds, removing optical distortions, minimizing photolytic interference, or achieving single-shot measurements with low uncertainty. The Ben T. Zinn Combustion Lab (BTZ) and High-power Electric Propulsion Lab (HPEPL) at Georgia Tech, which operate as a shared facility across multiple buildings and research groups, currently owns several traditional continuous, nanosecond, and dye laser systems. However, the lab currently does not have the capability to make ultrafast easurements; the only current ultrafast system is a low-power oscillator that is used to generate weak terahertz pulses. In order to improve our understanding of increasingly complex physics in practical Air Force warfighter systems, new femtosecond measurement capabilities are needed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310195
Entities
People
- Yi Mazumdar
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Georgia Tech Research Corporation
- United States Air Force