We report on developing of a prototype LIDAR for remote measurements of cross-wind profile, using backscattering
from aerosol in a single-ended scheme. The system contains a pulsed Nd:YAG laser with 500 Hz repetition rate and ~20
nsec pulse width, as a transmitter, and a matrix of 7 detectors, placed at the focus of Cassegrain-type telescope, as a
receiver. To realize detection of signals with high-sampling resolution, a high-sampling-rate digitizer with 8
simultaneously sampled channels and 60 Msamples/sec-per-channel sampling rate was incorporated into the system. To
check the ability to detect a local cross-wind flow, we performed an experiment using the cooling tower of Soreq reactor
as a vertical wind simulator. We recorded the detector signals from aerosol scattering at different distances, and analyzed
the temporal-spatial cross-correlation function. The analysis of the asymmetry and shift of the cross-correlation function
shows good ability for qualitative mapping of local cross-wind. Next development steps will include improvement of the
electronic circuits, in order to increase the sampling resolution along the line of sight, performing of additional controlled
experiments and developing of wind-profile algorithm.
We report on remote measurements of cross-wind and atmospheric turbulence, using a one-station scheme. As most
remote wind-sensing methods, our method is based on observing the drift of the scintillation pattern across the line of
sight. The scintillations are caused by naturally-occurring turbulence-induced refractive index irregularities in the
atmosphere, which drift at wind speed. Analyzing spatial-temporal cross-correlation function of the signals of two
elements in the array, it is possible to obtain the cross-wind speed. We use the zero-crossings technique for measuring
the cross-wind value, while the cross-wind direction is determined by comparing areas from both sides of the peak of the
cross-correlation function. Here we present results obtained using these techniques in comparison to independent
measurements of the anemometers. The experiments were performed along a uniform path over a flat beach parallel to
the Mediterranean Sea shore. Four white-screen diffusive targets were placed at distances of 300, 600, 850 and 1200m.
Five anemometers were placed along the laser beam path, one near each target and at the measurement station. Each
target was illuminated with a beam from a glass fiber pulsed infrared laser with a repetition rate of several thousand Hz,
and a sub-microsecond pulse-length, and output beam divergence of ~300 μrad. The receiver has an entrance aperture of
80mm, and the incoming radiation is focused onto an array of four 50×250um InGaAs detectors by a lens with
f=500mm. The results show good agreement. From the fluctuations of the signal on the detector array, our system also
measures the turbulence structure parameter Cn
2, using the angle-of arrival technique. The obtained results show
reasonable agreement with independent scintillometer measurements of Cn2, performed with a CW He-Ne laser in a
two-station setup with a detector at a distance of 60m from the laser.
We describe design and performance of efficient linear-to-radial polarization and mode converter. The converter is a
spatially variable retarder (SVR), comprised of eight appropriately cut half- wave plate segments. The SVRs were
applied to perform two different tasks. First, a linearly polarized Nd:YAG TEM00 beam was converted into a radiallypolarized
LG01* beam with polarization-purity of 98% and 96% measured in the near-field and far-field respectively.
The total power-loss in the transformation was 18%. Second, a 70W Nd:YAG radially-polarized beam with beamquality
M2=2.6 was converted into a linearly polarized nearly-Gaussian beam with beam-quality M2=1.4. Taking into
account power-losses, the experimental beam-brightness was increased by a factor of 2.6. The SVR manufacture was
optimized for application to high power lasers, where minimum phase-front distortion and maximum cylindrical-
polarization purity is required. SVRs have so far been successfully tested to the kW level. The proposed converging
methods can be of high practical importance due to unique properties of radially-polarized beams.
Radially-polarized beams can be strongly amplified without significant birefringence- induced aberrations. However, further improvement of the beam quality is desirable. In effort to transform the radially-polarized beam to a nearly-Gaussian beam, we consider effect of a spiral phase element (SPE) on the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) (0,1)* beam with radial polarization, and compare this with the case when the input beam is a LG (0,1)* beam with spiral phase and uniform or undefined polarization. The LG (0,1)* beam with radial polarization, despite its identity in intensity profile to the beam with spiral phase, has distinctly different properties when interacting with the SPE. With the SPE and spatial filter, we transformed the radially-polarized (0,1)* mode with M2=2.8 to a nearly-Gaussian beam with M2=1.7. Measured transformation efficiency was 50%, and the beam brightness P/(M2)2 was practically unchanged. The SPE affects polarization state of the radially-polarized beam, leading to appearance of spin angular momentum in the beam center at the far-field.
KEYWORDS: Resonators, Laser resonators, Gas lasers, Mirrors, Near field, Modes of laser operation, Carbon monoxide, Chemical elements, Laser stabilization, Reflectivity
We demonstrate an approach for stabilizing the transverse mode structure in cases where there is strong coupling between the longitudinal and the transverse modes. In this approach, an intracavity phase element that discriminates and selects a specific transverse mode is inserted into the laser resonator. We show that the discrimination can be so strong that the selection of the single transverse mode remains stable despite changes of the resonator length. We calculated the ratio of the small-signal gain and the gain threshold value for the fundamental and (1,0) Hermite-Gaussian modes, as function of a tiny change &Dgr;z of the resonator length, with and without the phase element. Without the phase element, the tiny change of the axial coordinate z of one of the mirrors of CO2 laser leads to periodical change of different transverse modes. Introducing intracavity phase element preserves a single transverse mode, which is kept practically unchanged with the change of the axial coordinate z, except for a slight periodical change of the output power and the beam quality, due to the periodicity of the resonance conditions.
KEYWORDS: Stars, Polarization, Oscillators, Nd:YAG lasers, Monochromatic aberrations, Optical amplifiers, Transmission electron microscopy, High power lasers, Rod lasers, Solid state lasers
We developed a Nd:YAG rod-based MOPA to generate high power in a radially-polarized beam. Two pump-chambers
in the amplifier section produced 2.1kW @ M2=9.5, while three pump-chambers yielded 3.1kW @ M2=14. Efficiency in
the last pump-chamber was 33%. Several techniques were utilized to enhance beam-quality: an azimuthally-polarized
oscillator, special pump-chambers, external compensation of lower-order aberrations, and high-order aberration
compensation by pairing pump-chambers.
A simple method for obtaining a nearly Gaussian laser beam from a high order Hermite-Gaussian mode is presented. The method is based on separating the equal lobes of the high order mode and combining them together coherently. The method was experimentally verified with an arrangement of three mirrors, a 50% beam splitter and a phase tuning plate. The beam quality factor calculated in x-direction for the resulting output beam is 1.045, being very close to that of ideal Gaussian beam. The calculated power leakage is only 1.5%. The experimental near-field and far-field intensity distributions of the output beam have nearly Gaussian cross sections in both the x and y directions, with M2x=1.34 and M2y=1.32. With some modifications, it is possible to obtain an output beam with M2x=1.15 and no power leakage.
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