The spectral stability of a previously reported Ho:YLF single frequency pulsed laser oscillator emitting at 2051 nm is drastically improved by utilizing a narrow linewidth Optically Pumped Semiconductor Laser (OPSL) as a seed for the oscillator. The oscillator is pumped by a dedicated gain-switched Tm:YLF laser at 1890 nm. The ramp-and-fire method is employed for generating single frequency emission. The heterodyne technique is used to analyze the spectral properties. The laser is designed to meet a part of the specifications for future airborne or space borne LIDAR detection of CO2. Seeding with a DFB diode and with an OPSL are compared. With OPSL seeding an Allan deviation of the centroid of the spectral distribution of 38 kHz and 517 kHz over 10 seconds and 60 milliseconds of sampling time for single pulses is achieved. The spectral width is approximately 30 MHz. The oscillator emits 2 mJ pulse energy with 50 Hz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and 20 ns pulse duration. The optical to optical efficiency of the Ho:YLF oscillator is 10 % and the beam quality is diffraction limited. To our knowledge this is the best spectral stability demonstrated to date for a Ho:YLF laser with millijoule pulse energy and nanosecond pulse duration.
A single-frequency q-switched Ho:YLF laser oscillator with a bow-tie ring resonator, specifically designed for highspectral stability, is reported. It is pumped with a dedicated Tm:YLF laser at 1.9 μm. The ramp-and-fire method with a DFB-diode laser as a reference is employed for generating single-frequency emission at 2051 nm. The laser is tested with different operating modes, including cw-pumping at different pulse repetition frequencies and gain-switched pumping. The standard deviation of the emission wavelength of the laser pulses is measured with the heterodyne technique at the different operating modes. Its dependence on the single-pass gain in the crystal and on the cavity finesse is investigated. At specific operating points the spectral stability of the laser pulses is 1.5 MHz (rms over 10 s). Under gain-switched pumping with 20% duty cycle and 2 W of average pump power, stable single-frequency pulse pairs with a temporal separation of 580 μs are produced at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. The measured pulse energy is 2 mJ (<2 % rms error on the pulse energy over 10 s) and the measured pulse duration is approx. 20 ns for each of the two pulses in the burst.
A test campaign for assessing the radiation hardness of different Erbium-doped garnet crystals including Er:YAG and a
compositionally tuned Er:YAG/Er:LuAG mixed garnet is reported. Tests with proton and gamma radiation have been
performed with parameters mimicking a 3-year low-earth-orbit satellite mission like MERLIN or ADM-Aeolus. For each
test sample broadband transmission spectra in the wavelength range of 500 nm – 1700 nm and characteristic laser curves
from a test laser oscillator have been measured. Radiation-induced losses have been calculated from the obtained data.
The results indicate that gamma radiation is the dominant loss source with about 0.5 %/cm radiation-induced losses for
the nominal dose of the chosen mission scenario.
We report on a single-frequency laser oscillator based on a new Er:YLuAG laser crystal which is spectrally suitable for
application as a transmitter in differential absorption lidar measurements of atmospheric CH4. The laser emits singlefrequency laser pulses with 2.3 mJ of energy and 90 ns duration at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. It is resonantly pumped by two linearly polarized single-mode cw fiber lasers at 1532 nm. A scan of the CH4-absorption line at 1645.1 nm was performed and the shape of the line with its substructure was reproduced as theoretically predicted. A 2.5-dimensional performance model was developed, in which pump absorption saturation and laser reabsorption is included. Also the spectral output of the laser oscillator longitudinal multimode operation could be predicted by the laser model.
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