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Space weather, the study of the Earth's upper atmosphere and forecasting its response due to solar events, depends on knowledge of the state parameters of the neutral and ionized upper atmosphere. In this work, we present a ground-based diode-seeded, high-power, narrow-linewidth Yb-fiber amplifier-based lidar operating at 1083 nm for measuring temperature and density of the neutral atmosphere from 300-1000 km. The current state of the lidar system will be addressed, as well as ongoing work to increase 1) signal to noise ratio through power scaling and 2) spatial resolution and wind measurement capability via pulsed operation.

We report on the development of a high brightness laser diode module capable of coupling over 100W of optical power into a 105 µm 0.15 NA fiber at 976 nm. This module, based on nLIGHT's Pearl TM product architecture, utilizes hard soldered single emitters packaged into a compact and passively-cooled package. In this system each diode is individually collimated in the fast and slow axes and free-space coupled into a single fiber. The high brightness module has an optical excitation under 0.13 NA, is virtually free of cladding modes, and has an electrical to optical efficiency greater than 40%. Additionally, this module is compatible with high power 7:1 fused fiber combiners, and initial experiments demonstrated 500W coupled into a 220 µm, 0.22 NA fiber. These modules address the need in the market for higher brightness diode lasers for pumping fiber lasers and direct material processing.

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