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Understanding solar cell response to pulsed laser outputs is important for the evaluation of power beaming applications. The time response of high efficiency GaAs and silicon solar cells to a 25 nS monochromatic pulse input is described. The PC-1D computer code is used to analyze the cell current during and after the pulse for various conditions.
Momentum modulation of a relativistic electron beam by a Nd:YAG laser is demonstrated. The electrons, at 100 MeV energy, interact with the laser light in helium gas at standard temperature and pressure. At an angle of 6.55 mrad between the two wavevectors, corresponding to the Cerenkov angle, a given electron remains in a field of constant phase as it passes through the light beam. The experimental arrangement is illustrated showing the trajectories of the electron and light. The particle momentum is measured by a mass spectrometer, and the angle between the wavevectors is controlled by a rotatable mirror. Experimental results indicate that momentum modulation of an electron beam may be used for amplification. A possible configuration for an optical klystron is illustrated.
The major technology options for high-energy FELs and adaptive optics available to the Space Laser Energy (SELENE) program are reviewed. Initial system evaluations of these options are described. A feasibility assessment of laser power beaming is given.
A proposed highly accurate clock or oscillator would be based on the concept of an opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) stabilized to an atomic transition. Opto-electronic oscillators, which have been described in a number of prior NASA Tech Briefs articles, generate signals at frequencies in the gigahertz range characterized by high spectral purity but not by longterm stability or accuracy. On the other hand, the signals generated by previously developed atomic clocks are characterized by long-term stability and accuracy but not by spectral purity. The proposed atomic clock would provide high spectral purity plus long-term stability and accuracy a combination of characteristics needed to realize advanced developments in communications and navigation. In addition, it should be possible to miniaturize the proposed atomic clock. When a laser beam is modulated by a microwave signal and applied to a photodetector, the electrical output of the photodetector includes a component at the microwave frequency. In atomic clocks of a type known as Raman clocks or coherent-population-trapping (CPT) clocks, microwave outputs are obtained from laser beams modulated, in each case, to create two sidebands that differ in frequency by the amount of a hyperfine transition in the ground state of atoms of an element in vapor form in a cell. The combination of these sidebands produces a transparency in the population of a higher electronic level that can be reached from either of the two ground-state hyperfine levels by absorption of a photon. The beam is transmitted through the vapor to a photodetector. The components of light scattered or transmitted by the atoms in the two hyperfine levels mix in the photodetector and thereby give rise to a signal at the hyperfine- transition frequency. The proposed atomic clock would include an OEO and a rubidium- or cesium- vapor cell operating in the CPT/Raman regime (see figure). In the OEO portion of this atomic clock, as in a typical prior OEO, a laser beam would pass through an electro-optical modulator, the modulated beam would be fed into a fiber-optic delay line, and the delayed beam would be fed to a photodetector. The electrical output of the photodetector would be detected, amplified, filtered, and fed back to the microwave input port of the modulator. The laser would be chosen to have the same wavelength as that of the pertinent ground-state/higher-state transition of the atoms in the vapor. The modulator/ filter combination would be designed to operate at the microwave frequency of the hyperfine transition. Part of the laser beam would be tapped from the fiberoptic loop of the OEO and introduced into the vapor cell. After passing through the cell, this portion of the beam would be detected differentially with a tapped portion of the fiber-optically-delayed beam. The electrical output of the photodetector would be amplified and filtered in a loop that would control a DC bias applied to the modulator. In this manner, the long-term stability and accuracy of the atomic transition would be transferred to the OEO.
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) is a space-based lidar being developed to monitor changes in the mass balance of the Earth's polar ice sheets (Thomas et al. 1985). GLAS is part of NASA's Earth Observing System (Schutz 1995), and is being designed to launch into a 600 km circular polar orbit in the year 2001, for continuous operation over 3 to 5 years. The orbit's 94 degree inclination has been selected to allow good coverage and profile patterns over the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. The GLAS mission uses a small dedicated spacecraft provided by Ball Aerospace, which is required to have a very stable nadir and zenith pointing platform which points to within approximately 100 urad (20 arcseconds) of Nadir. Accurate knowledge of the laser beam's pointing angle (in the far field) is critical since pointing the laser beam away from nadir biases the altimetry measurements (Gardner 1992, Bufton et al. 1991). This error is a function of the distance of the laser centroid off nadir multiplied by the orbit altitude and the tangent of the slope angle of the terrain. Most of the ice sheet surface slopes are less than 1? resulting in pointing knowledge bias of only 7.6 cm with 7.3 urad accuracy, and overall single shot height accuracy of approximately 15 cm. However, over a 3 deg surface slope pointing knowledge to approximately 7.3 urad is the largest error source (23 cm) in achieving 26 cm height accuracy. The GLAS design incorporates a stellar reference system (SRS) to relate the laser beam pointing angle to the star field to an accuracy of 7.3 urad. The stellar reference system combines an attitude determination system (ADS) operating from 4 to 10 Hz coupled to a 40 Hz laser reference system (LRS) to perform this task.
This paper discusses the design issues and fabrication considerations specifically related to a large twelve meter, graphite-epoxy space truss that has been developed to provide support of the primary mirror system for the SpaCe Laser ENErgy Beam Transmission Optical System.
Electro-optical tracking system employs a laser beam illuminating source, an electronic laser beam deflector, and an image dissector photomultiplier. An electronic scanning transmitter and receiver follows rapid movements or accelerations of the target.
Two kinds of gas-flow reaction chambers expose specimens of materials to spatially even fluxes of monatomic oxygen. Monatomic oxygen diffuses along side-arm tubes attached to flowing-after-glow apparatus. If rate of diffusion high enough, specimens at ends of these tubes receive uniform doses. Monatomic oxygen generated by photolysis in pulsed laser beam diffuses sideways out of laser beam and onto nearby surfaces of specimens.
A new instrument was developed for chemical characterization of surfaces that combines the analytical power of Raman spectroscopy with the three-dimensional topographic information provided by conoscopic holography. The figure schematically depicts the proposed hybrid instrument. The output of the conoscopic holographic portion of the instrument is a topographical map of the surface; the output of the Raman portion of the instrument is hyperspectral Raman data, from which the chemical and/or biological composition of the surface would be deduced. By virtue of the basic principles of design and operation of the instrument, the hyperspectral image data would be inherently spatially registered with the topographical data. In conoscopic holography, the object and reference beams of classical holography are replaced by the ordinary and extraordinary components generated by a single beam traveling through a birefringent, uniaxial crystal. In the basic conoscopic configuration, a laser light is projected onto a specimen and the resulting illuminated spot becomes a point source of diffuse light that propagates in every direction. The laser beam is rasterscanned in two dimensions (x and y) perpendicular to the beam axis (z), and at each x,y location, the pattern of interference between the ordinary and extraordinary rays is recorded. The recorded interferogram constitutes the conoscopic hologram. Of particular significance for the proposed instrument is that the conoscopic hologram contains information on the z coordinate (height) of the illuminated surface spot. Hence, a topographical map of the specimen is constructed point-by-point by rastering the laser beam in the x and y directions and correlating the x and y coordinates with the z information obtained from the interferograms. Conoscopic imaging is an established method, and conoscopic laboratory instruments for surface metrology are commercially available. In Raman spectroscopy of a surface, one measures the spectrum of laser light scattered inelastically from a laser-illuminated spot on the surface. The wavelengths of the inelastically scattered light differ from that of the incident laser beam by amounts that correspond to the energies of molecular vibrations. The resulting vibrational spectrum can be used to identify the molecules. Raman spectroscopy is a standard laboratory technique for identifying mineralogical, biological, and other specific chemical compositions.
A compact laser source and a single sideband modulator used therein is disclosed. The compact laser source includes a seed laser and one or more channels, with each channel generating one or more output laser beams having corresponding different wavelengths. The compact laser source can be formed in whole or in part on a single optical motherboard to thereby minimize space and power requirements. By employing the disclosed single sideband modulator, harmonics in the generated output laser beams can be minimized. The compact laser source finds application in an atom interferometer (AI) system, which may be used to measure gravity, acceleration, or rotation of the AI system.
Engineering design of a near-term laser surface-to-surface power beaming station to transmit power to users in shadowed regions or during the night. Input system requirements were to be able to provide 300 W of continuous usable power to users including landers and rovers, at distances up to 10 km, with a total system landed mass under 625 kg. Due to surface irregularities and the close horizon of the moon, to achieve 10-km transmission the laser must be elevated above the surface. The Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) program is developing a solar array mounted on a 10-m tall mast, intended to fit on a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander, with target readiness date of 2028. At an optimum location near the south pole, the elevated array produces power for a majority of the lunar day.
It is pointed out that the generic utility of a robot in a factory/assembly environment could be substantially enhanced by providing a vision capability to the robot. A standard videocamera for robot vision provides a two-dimensional image which contains insufficient information for a detailed three-dimensional reconstruction of an object. Approaches which supply the additional information needed for the three-dimensional mapping of objects with complex surface shapes are briefly considered and a description is presented of a laser-based system which can provide three-dimensional vision to a robot. The system consists of a laser beam array generator, an optical image recorder, and software for controlling the required operations. The projection of a laser beam array onto a surface produces a dot pattern image which is viewed from one or more suitable perspectives. Attention is given to the mathematical method employed, the space coding technique, the approaches used for obtaining the transformation parameters, the optics for laser beam array generation, the hardware for beam array coding, and aspects of image acquisition.
The position of the secondary mirror of a submillimeter telescope with respect to the primary mirror needs to be known .0.03 mm in three dimensions. At the time of this reporting, no convenient, reasonably priced arrangement that offers this capability exists. The solution proposed here relies on measurement devices developed and deployed for the GeoSAR mission, and later adapted for the ISAT (Innovative Space Based Radar Antenna Technology) demonstration. The measurement arrangement consists of four metrology heads, located on an optical bench, attached to the secondary mirror. Each metrology head has a dedicated target located at the edge of the primary mirror. One laser beam, launched from the head and returned by the target, is used to measure distance. Another beam, launched from a beacon on the target, is monitored by the metrology head and generates a measurement of the target position in the plane perpendicular to the laser beam. A 100-MHz modulation is carried by a collimated laser beam. The relevant wavelength is the RF one, 3 m, divided by two, because the light carries it to the target and back. The phase change due to travel to the target and back is measured by timing the zero-crossing of the RF modulation, using a 100-MHz clock. In order to obtain good resolution, the 100-MHz modulation signal is down-converted to 1 kHz. Then, the phase change corresponding to the round-trip to the target is carried by a 1-kHz signal. Since the 100-MHz clock beats 100,000 times during one period of the 1-kHz signal, the least-significant-bit (LSB) resolution is LSB = 0.015 mm.
An optical tweezers is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center as a visiblelight interface between ubiquitous laser technologies and the interrogation, visualization, manufacture, control, and energization of nanostructures such as silicon carbide (SiC) nanotubes. The tweezers uses one or more focused laser beams to hold micrometer-sized particles called tools (sometimes called tips in atomic-force-microscope terminology). A strongly focused laser beam has an associated light-pressure gradient that is strong enough to pull small particles to the focus, in spite of the oppositely directed scattering force; "optical tweezers" is the common term for this effect. The objective is to use the tools to create carefully shaped secondary traps to hold and assemble nanostructures that may contain from tens to hundreds of atoms. The interaction between a tool and the nanostructures is to be monitored optically as is done with scanning probe microscopes. One of the initial efforts has been to create, shape, and control multiple tweezers beams. To this end, a programmable spatial-light modulator (SLM) has been used to modify the phase of a laser beam at up to 480 by 480 points. One program creates multiple, independently controllable tweezer beams whose shapes can be tailored by making the SLM an adaptive mirror in an interferometer (ref. 1). The beams leave the SLM at different angles, and an optical Fourier transform maps these beams to different positions in the focal plane of a microscope objective. The following figure shows two arrays of multiple beams created in this manner. The patterns displayed above the beam array control the intensity-to-phase transformation required in programming the SLM. Three of the seven beams displayed can be used as independently controllable beams.
Remote Raman [e.g.,1-5] and micro-Raman spectroscopy [e.g., 6-10] are being evaluated on geological samples for their potential applications on Mars rover or lander. The Raman lines of minerals are sharp and distinct. The Raman finger-prints of minerals do not shift appreciably but remain distinct even in sub-micron grains and, therefore, can be used for mineral identification in fine-grained rocks [e.g., 4,7]. In this work we have evaluated the capability of a directly coupled remote Raman system (co-axial configuration) for distinguishing the mineralogy of multiple crystals in the exciting laser beam. We have measured the Raman spectra of minerals in the near vicinity of each other and excited with a laser beam (e.g. -quartz (Qz) and K-feldspar (Feld) plates, each 5 mm thick). The spectra of composite transparent mineral plates of 5 mm thickness of -quartz and gypsum over calcite crystal were measured with the composite samples perpendicular to the exciting laser beam. The measurements of remote Raman spectra of various bulk minerals, and mixed and composite minerals with our portable UH remote Raman system were carried out at the Langley Research Center in a fully illuminated laboratory.
This invention provides a method for laser drilling small diameter, closely-spaced, and accurately located holes in a body of material which is transparent or substantially transparent to the laser radiation employed whereby the holes are drilled through the thickness of the body from the surface opposite to that on which the laser beam impinges to the surface of laser beam impingement.
A numerical code has been successfully developed for the investigation of thruster performance using a laser-sustained hydrogen plasma as the propellant. The plasma was sustained using a 10.6-micron CO2 laser beam focused at different positions within the thruster. The physical model assumed that plasma is in thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE), and geometric ray tracing was adopted to describe the laser beam. The steady-state, axisymmetric, Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the laser power absorption process have been solved numerically. A pressure based Navier-Stokes numerical solver using body-fitted coordinates was used to calculate the laser-supported rocket flow which includes both subsonic and supersonic flow regions. From the limited parametric study, which did not try to optimize the rocket performance, it was found that better performance was obtained when the laser beam was focused closer to the rocket throat.
The multi-beam long trace profiler (MB-LTP) is under development at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The traditional LTPs scans the surface under the test by a single laser beam directly measuring the surface figure slope errors. While capable of exceptional surface slope accuracy, the LTP single beam scanning has slow measuring speed. Metrology efficiency can be increased by replacing the single laser beam with multiple beams that can scan a section of the test surface at a single instance. The increase in speed with such a system would be almost proportional to the number of laser beams. The progress for a multi-beam long trace profiler development will be presented.