High efficiency laser designs for airborne and space-based lidar remote sensing systems

F. Hovis; R. Burnham; M. Storm; R. Edwards; P. Burns; E. Sullivan; J. Edelman; K. Andes; B. Walters; K. Le; C. Culpepper; J. Rudd; T. Chuang; X. Dang; J. Hwang; T. Wysocki

doi:10.1117/12.896106

13 September 2011 High efficiency laser designs for airborne and space-based lidar remote sensing systems

F. Hovis, R. Burnham, M. Storm, R. Edwards, P. Burns, E. Sullivan, J. Edelman, K. Andes, B. Walters, K. Le, C. Culpepper, J. Rudd, T. Chuang, X. Dang, J. Hwang, T. Wysocki

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8159, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XII; 815903 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.896106
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The increasing use of lidar remote sensing systems in the limited power environments of unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites is motivating laser engineers and designers to put a high premium on the overall efficiency of the laser transmitters needed for these systems. Two particular examples upon which we have been focused are the lasers for the ICESat-2 mission and for the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor-Global Hawk (LVIS-GH) system. We have recently developed an environmentally hardened engineering unit for the ICESat-2 laser that has achieved over 9 W of 532 nm output at 10 kHz with a wall plug efficiency to 532 nm of over 5%. The laser has a pulse width of <1.5 ns and an M² of <1.5. For the LVIS-GH lidar, we recently delivered a 4.2 W, 2.5 kHz, 1064 nm laser transmitter that achieved a wall plug efficiency of 8.4%. The laser has a pulse width of 5 ns and an M² of 1.1 We provide an overview of the design and environmental testing of these laser transmitters.

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F. Hovis, R. Burnham, M. Storm, R. Edwards, P. Burns, E. Sullivan, J. Edelman, K. Andes, B. Walters, K. Le, C. Culpepper, J. Rudd, T. Chuang, X. Dang, J. Hwang, and T. Wysocki "High efficiency laser designs for airborne and space-based lidar remote sensing systems", Proc. SPIE 8159, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XII, 815903 (13 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.896106

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