Construction of a high power OPO laser system for differential absorption LIDAR

Kevin O. Douglass; Stephen E. Maxwell; David F. Plusquellic; Joseph T. Hodges; Roger D. van Zee; Daniel V. Samarov; James R. Whetstone

doi:10.1117/12.894089

13 September 2011 Construction of a high power OPO laser system for differential absorption LIDAR

Kevin O. Douglass, Stephen E. Maxwell, David F. Plusquellic, Joseph T. Hodges, Roger D. van Zee, Daniel V. Samarov, James R. Whetstone

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8159, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XII; 81590D (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894089
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Our goal is to develop and characterize optical measurement technology to enable accurate quantification of greenhouse-gas emissions from distributed sources and sinks. We are constructing a differential absorption LIDAR (DIAL) system that will be sensitive to the three primary greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Our system uses a high energy optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating from 1585 nm to 1646 nm. Here we describe this OPO system and initial characterization of its output. The OPO uses a Rotated Image Singly-Resonant Twisted RectAngle (RISTRA) design. The commercially available RISTRA cavity is machined from a solid block of aluminum. The compact single piece cavity design requires no mirror adjustments and image rotation provides efficient light conversion efficiency and excellent beam quality. The injection seeded OPO has demonstrated total output energy of 50 mJ/pulse when pumped with 220 mJ/pulse of 1064 nm radiation. The pump laser has a repetition rate variable from 1 Hz to 100 Hz and a temporal pulse width of 4.2 ns. In the current configuration the seed laser is locked to a mode of the cavity.

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Kevin O. Douglass, Stephen E. Maxwell, David F. Plusquellic, Joseph T. Hodges, Roger D. van Zee, Daniel V. Samarov, and James R. Whetstone "Construction of a high power OPO laser system for differential absorption LIDAR", Proc. SPIE 8159, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XII, 81590D (13 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894089

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