Development of a wavelength stabilized seed laser system for an airborne water vapour lidar experiment

H. Schwarzer; A. Börner; A. Fix; B. Günther; H.-W. Hübers; M. Raugust; F. Schrandt; M. Wirth

doi:10.1117/12.728854

26 September 2007 Development of a wavelength stabilized seed laser system for an airborne water vapour lidar experiment

H. Schwarzer, A. Börner, A. Fix, B. Günther, H.-W. Hübers, M. Raugust, F. Schrandt, M. Wirth

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6681, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring VIII; 66810H (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.728854
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

At the German Aerospace Center an airborne multi-wavelength differential absorption LIDAR for the measurement of atmospheric water vapour is currently under development. This instrument will enable the retrieval of the complete humidity profile from the surface up to the lowermost stratosphere with high vertical and horizontal resolution at a systematic error below 5%. The LIDAR will work in the wavelength region around 935 nm at three different water vapour absorption lines and one reference wavelength. A major sub-system of this instrument is a highly frequency stabilized seed laser system for the optical parametrical oscillators which generate the narrowband high energy light pulses. The development of the seed laser system includes the control software, the electronic control unit and the opto-mechanical layout. The seed lasers are Peltier-cooled distributed feedback laser diodes with bandwidths of about 30 MHz, each one operating for 200 μs before switching to the next one. The required frequency stability is ± 30 MHz ≅ ± 10^-4 nm under the rough environmental conditions aboard an aircraft. It is achieved by locking the laser wavelength to a water vapour absorption line. The paper describes the opto-mechanical layout of the seed laser system, the stabilization procedure and the results obtained with this equipment.

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H. Schwarzer, A. Börner, A. Fix, B. Günther, H.-W. Hübers, M. Raugust, F. Schrandt, and M. Wirth "Development of a wavelength stabilized seed laser system for an airborne water vapour lidar experiment", Proc. SPIE 6681, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring VIII, 66810H (26 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.728854

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