Misalignment sensitivity of optical resonators

Hauck, R.; Kortz, H. P.; Weber, Horst

doi:10.1364/ao.19.000598

Cited by 95 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The tolerance analysis of the laser system is conducted analytically, assuming Gaussian beams and a paraxial optical system. Similar attempts have been carried out for simple resonator geometries [23,24] and for arbitrary resonators [25], but only taking into account the displacement and tilt of the mode. However, the resulting reduction of output power were not described in these papers.…”

Section: Theoretical Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Strotkamp

Munk

Jungbluth

et al. 2019

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018

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In this work the first diode-pumped Alexandrite ring laser in Q-switched single-longitudinal mode (SLM) operation is presented. A carefully designed and complex ring resonator with several functional components is combined with an innovative pumping scheme with high-power red laser diodes.The spectral and energetic suitability of a first laser was demonstrated in hundreds of operating hours and, with a novel mobile lidar system, by the first measurements in the atmosphere by means of a diode-pumped Alexandrite laser, yielding data from the stratosphere to the mesosphere.An improved laser yields a pulse energy of 1.7 mJ at a repetition rate of 500 Hz with an excellent beam quality of M 2 < 1.1. By seeding the resonator with a narrow-band diode laser, SLM operation with a linewidth below 4 MHz is achieved. The electro-optical efficiency of 2 % is the highest archived for all Alexandrite lasers in SLM operation and reasonable for space-operation.The performance analysis as well as benchmarking with the space-qualified mounting technology point out the TRL and the remaining effort of development of the technology. INTRODUCTIONUnderstanding temperature distributions and wind fields in the atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 110 km, i.e. the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), is crucial for performing numerical simulations of the Earth's climate. The effects of gravity waves on the global wind system and atmospheric dynamics are hardly understood and item of research of space agencies and ground-based observations [1-6]. One well-established approach to provide such data is to measure the Doppler-broadened and -shifted resonance line of metal atoms, e.g. potassium (770 nm or 772 nm) [6,7], iron (386 nm) [8,9] and sodium (589 nm) [10][11][12], by means of a Doppler lidar.While localized measurements have been performed over the last 20 years from the ground and revealed fundamental deviations from the predicted conditions, there is no coverage of global scale by lidar. The development of a spaceborne resonance lidar instrument is deferred by the lack of laser sources at the demanded wavelengths that are suitable for spaceborne operation.The currently used Alexandrite (Cr 3+ :BeAl2O4) lasers with their broad tunability (700-800 nm) [13] are well suited for the generation of several interesting wavelengths, either operating at their fundamental wavelength or intra-cavity frequency-doubled. The flashlamp-pumped Alexandrite ring lasers operating in Q-switched single-longitudinal mode (SLM) operation are commonly used as beam sources in resonance potassium and iron resonance lidar systems [6][7][8][9].However the usage of flashlamps as pump source makes them unsuitable for spaceborne operation, due to the poor efficiency and limited lifetime. One hopeful approach to overcome these drawbacks is by replacing the flashlamps with diode lasers [14,15]. Recently, new basic investigations in the field of diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers have been conducted with focus on altimetry lidar and vegetation monitoring (red-edge) [...

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Section: Theoretical Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Strotkamp

Munk

Jungbluth

et al. 2019

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The tolerance analysis of the laser system is conducted analytically, assuming Gaussian beams and a paraxial optical system. Similar attempts have been carried out for simple resonator geometries [29,30] and for arbitrary resonators [31], but only taking into account the displacement and tilt of the mode. However, the resulting reduction in output power was not described in these papers.…”

Section: Measurement Of the Susceptibility To Misalignmentsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser for next generation satellite-based earth observation lidar

et al. 2019

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In this work, the design of a diode-pumped Alexandrite ring laser in Q-switched single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation for a spaceborne lidar mission is presented. The laser is pumped by a self-developed fiber-coupled laser diode pump device and yields a pulse energy of 1.7 mJ at a repetition rate of 500 Hz with an excellent beam quality of M 2 < 1.1. By seeding the resonator with a narrow band diode laser, SLM operation with a linewidth of approximately 10 MHz is achieved. The electrooptical efficiency of 2% is the highest achieved for all Alexandrite lasers in SLM operation and reasonable for space operation. The performance analysis as well as benchmarking with the space-qualified mounting technology points out the TRL and the remaining effort for the development of the technology. An estimation of the requirements for a spaceborne resonance lidar mission underlines the suitability of such a lidar system with a diode-pumped Alexandrite laser as the beam source.

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“…Hence, we try to assess the misalignment in our cavity based on the observed variation of cavity linewidth across the cavity lengths. Under the assumption that the misalignment is entirely due to the tilting of the mirrors, the diffraction loss per round trip is given by [16]:…”

Section: Cavity Mode Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Operating a near-concentric cavity at the last stable resonance

et al. 2018

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Near-concentric optical cavities of spherical mirrors can provide technical advantages over the conventional near-planar cavities in applications requiring strong atom-light interaction, as they concentrate light in a very small region of space. However, such cavities barely support stable optical modes, and thus impose practical challenges. Here, we present an experiment where we maintain a near-concentric cavity at its last resonant length for laser light at 780 nm resonant with an atomic transition. At this point, the spacing of two spherical mirror surfaces is 207(13) nm shorter than the critical concentric point, corresponding to a stability parameter g = −0.999962(2) and a cavity beam waist of 2.4 µm.

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Misalignment sensitivity of optical resonators

Cited by 95 publications

References 12 publications

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser instrument for next generation satellite-based Earth observation

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser for next generation satellite-based earth observation lidar

Operating a near-concentric cavity at the last stable resonance

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