PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 28, 2006
Proc. SPIE. 6272, Advances in Adaptive Optics II
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Optical amplifiers, Modulation, Waveguides, Crystals, Adaptive optics, Modulators, Sodium, Laser guide stars, Laser systems engineering
Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (LMCT) reports on the development of a compact, scalable versatile optical waveform sodium guidestar laser system (GLS) suitable for Adaptive Optics (AO) systems on Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT's) and smaller telescopes. We have successfully completed phase 1 of the three-phase, 4½ year, NSF funded, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) sponsored program. The GLS can be optimized for efficient sodium layer interaction for each telescope / AO system with mitigation of parasitic effects such as Rayleigh or cirrus cloud scatter of adjacent beacon light in multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) and spot elongation in the sodium layer from off-axis light launch in an ELT. The proposed solid-state laser architecture incorporates patent-pending self-imaging waveguide technology and is based on a set of requirements that was determined after extensive discussions with the astronomy adaptive optics community. This paper presents data on single beacon, Rayleigh compensating, and elongation compensating waveforms that were demonstrated through all stages of the architecture, as well as demonstrated and anticipated 589 nm power levels for each waveform. The design of the master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) architecture, modulation methodology, power amplification, and sum-frequency generation stages is also described. System attributes, including size, weight, and power will also be discussed.
