No abstract

A compact scanning LADAR system based on a fiber-coupled, monostatic configuration which transmits (TX) and receives (RX) through the same aperture has been developed. A small piezo-electric stripe actuator was used to resonantly vibrate a fiber cantilever tip and scan the transmitted near-single-mode optical beam and the cladding mode receiving aperture. When compared to conventional bi-static systems with polygon, galvo, or Risley-prism beam scanners, the described system offers several advantages: the inherent alignment of the receiver field-of-view (FOV) relative to the TX beam angle, small size and weight, and power efficiency. Optical alignment of the system was maintained at all ranges since there is no parallax between the TX beam and the receiver FOV. A position-sensing detector (PSD) was used to sense the instantaneous fiber tip position. The Si PSD operated in a two-photon absorption mode to detect the transmitted 1.5 μm pulses. The prototype system collected 50,000 points per second with a 6° full scan angle and a 27 mm clear aperture/40 mm focal length TX/RX lens, had a range precision of 4.7 mm, and was operated at a maximum range of 26 m.

We have applied a new simplified combination of numerical methods for studying the time and threedimensional space dependence of quasi-three-level Yb 3+ :Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) end-pumped lasers passively Q-switched by a Cr 4+ :YAG saturable absorber. We base our 3-D model on iterative, efficient, time-and space-dependent numerical propagation of the optical field through the laser cavity. The complex-valued laser field is coupled to the Yb 3+ :YAG and Cr 4+ :YAG media via complex optical permittivities, which are subsequently altered by gain/loss intensity saturation. The calculation is simplified using the radial symmetry of the system, with the cavity round-trip time as the smallest increment for updating the permittivities. We also include the effects of field diffraction in an intra-cavity air gap. For specified CW spatial pump conditions, self-consistent repetitively pulsed solutions for the laser field in a flat-flat or flat-convex mirror cavity are found with no ad hoc laser mode size or shape assumptions; these solutions are not Gaussian modes. We concentrate on compact lasers with multi-Watt average output power, operating at modest pulse energy (~1.0 mJ), high repetition rate (~5 kHz) and short pulse duration (~1.5 ns). Typical room-temperature pump-to-laser slope power efficiencies exceeding 50% are predicted, depending on laser pump and cavity loss parameters. Model results agree well with recently published experimental data.

No abstract