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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Ridge quantum-cascade lasers emitting near 4.6 μm are fabricated and their power and spectral characteristics are studied. Stable pulsed lasing with an output optical power exceeding 10 W (more than 5 W from one facet) at room temperature is demonstrated. (paper)
Conceived in response to the 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey, ATLAS/ICESat-2 was launched on September 15, 2018 to a polar orbit and has been operating continuously since. The ATLAS instrument is a continuously-operating direct-detection pulsed laser altimeter utilizing a solid-state 532-nm laser source operating at a 10-kHz pulse repetition rate along with a diffractive optic to illuminate six 15-meter spots on the Earth's surface with each laser pulse. An 80-cm receiver telescope fiber-coupled to segmented photomultipliers provides single-photon detection capability. This presentationr will present an overview of the ATLAS instrument design, some challenges encountered during development, and initial results from orbit.
The conceptual design, theoretical performance, and experimental verification of a two-telescope optical array receiver currently under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is described in this paper. A brief summary of optical communications theory for array reception of pulsed laser signals is developed, and the impact of coding discussed. The development of the optical detection, array processing, and data-acquisition assemblies required for experimental demonstration is described, and preliminary results obtained in a field environment are presented and evaluated.
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In this work, we report progress on developing a multipurpose scanning probe cantilever applying gallium nitride nanowires as the probe tip. Gallium nitride nanowires possess high potential as probes due to their straight profile, tunable electrical and optical properties, high Young’s Modulus, durability, and high-yield fabrication process. Their wide bandgap enables them to be pumped to emit ultraviolet pulses which can be used for optical imaging and spectroscopy. They can be doped during growth to be electrically conductive, and their sharp tips obtained during epitaxial growth enable confinement of a high electric field at tip–sample interface. Their sharp tips are obtained during fabrication by their epitaxial growth which eliminates the need for postprocess sharpening that is typically required for standard STM tips. We present results of using gallium nitride nanowires for scanning tunnel microscopy applications of atomic-resolution imaging and lithography, and atomic force microscopy applications of imaging and lithography in vacuum and atmospheric environments.
An electro-optic Q-switch for generating sequence of laser pulses was disclosed. The Q-switch comprises a quadratic electro-optic material and is connected with an electronic unit generating a radio frequency wave with positive and negative pulses alternatively. The Q-switch is controlled by the radio frequency wave in such a way that laser pulse is generated when the radio frequency wave changes its polarity.
The Crab and the Vela pulsars were observed to emit pulsed radiation in the radio, optical, X-ray and gamma ray windows of the electromagnetic spectrum. In all cases the emission appears in two peaks, except in the case of radio emission from the Vela pulsar which is single peaked. With accurate peak position determinations made possible by recent observations, it is interesting to see if the intra-peak separations at various wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum bear any relation to each other. We report here an emerging trend of a monotonic decrease of the intra-peak separation with energy. The rate of decrease is faster in the case of the Vela pulsar than in that of the Crab pulsar. Even the case of single peaked radio emission by the Vela pulsar can be viewed as being consistent with this trend. These trends provide both an opportunity and a challenge to realistic modelings of pulsed emissions by these objects.
In the DIAL technique, the water vapor concentration profile is determined by analyzing the lidar backscatter signals for laser wavelengths tuned 'on' and 'off' a water vapor absorption line. Desired characteristics of the on-line transmitted laser beam include: pulse energy greater than or equal to 100 mJ, high-resolution tuning capability (uncertainty less than 0.25 pm), good spectral stability (jitter less than 0.5 pm about the mean), and high spectral purity (greater than 99 percent). The off-line laser is generally detuned less than 100 pm away from the water vapor line. Its spectral requirements are much less stringent. In our past research, we developed and demonstrated the airborne DIAL technique for water vapor measurements in the 720-nm spectral region using a system based on an alexandrite laser as the transmitter for the on-line wavelength and a Nd:YAG laser-pumped dye laser for the off-line wavelength. This off-line laser has been replaced by a second alexandrite laser. Diode lasers are used to injection seed both lasers for frequency and linewidth control. This eliminates the need for the two intracavity etalons utilized in our previous alexandrite laser and thereby greatly reduces the risk of optical damage. Consequently, the transmitted pulse energy can be substantially increased, resulting in greater measurement range, higher data density, and increased measurement precision. In this paper, we describe the diode injection seed source, the two alexandrite lasers, and the device used to line lock the on-line seed source to the water vapor absorption feature.
A laser pulse composed of a fundamental and an appropriately phased second harmonic can drive a time-dependent current of photoionized electrons that generates broadband THz radiation. Over the propagation distances relevant to many experiments, dispersion causes the relative phase between the harmonics to evolve. This “dephasing” slows the accumulation of THz energy and results in a multi-cycle THz pulse with significant angular dispersion. Here, we introduce a novel optical configuration that compensates the relative phase evolution, allowing for the formation of a half-cycle THz pulse with almost no angular dispersion. The configuration uses the spherical aberration of an axilens to map a prescribed radial phase variation in the near field to a desired longitudinal phase variation in the far field. Simulations that combine this configuration with an ultrashort flying focus demonstrate the formation of a half-cycle THz pulse with a controlled emission angle and 1/4 the angular divergence of the multi-cycle pulse created by a conventional optical configuration.
In this presentation, we introduce phase-change tunable filters (PCTFs), which are capable of actively tunable spectral filtering as well as continuous tuning (hyperspectral) across multiple IR wavebands (1–10 μm); several orders-of-magnitude faster switching speeds (GHz–MHz) than the state-of-the-art, and narrowband filtering (~50 nm passband). This technology subsystem is based on the unique electro-optics of non-volatile, phase-change materials (PCMs) such as GeSbTe and SbS. PCMs exhibit a large, reversible refractive index shift through applied energetic pulses. By integrating PCMs with established optical filter designs—whose optical properties are strongly dependent on the constituent materials’ refractive indices—we can rapidly and reversibly tune the PCTFs center wavelength (passband).
Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been recognized as one of the most important greenhouse gases. It is essential for the study of global warming to accurately measure the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and continuously record its variation. A high repetition rate, highly efficient, Q-switched 2-micron laser system as the transmitter of a coherent differential absorption lidar for CO2 measurement has been developed in NASA Langley Research Center. This laser system is capable of making a vertical profiling of CO2 from ground and column measurement of CO2 from air and space-borne platform. The transmitter is a master-slave laser system. The master laser operates in a single frequency, either on-line or off-line of a selected CO2 absorption line. The slave laser is a Q-switched ring-cavity Ho:YLF laser which is pumped by a Tm:fiber laser. The repetition rate can be adjusted from a few hundred Hz to 10 kHz. The injection seeding success rate is from 99.4% to 99.95%. For 1 kHz operation, the output pulse energy is 5.5mJ with the pulse length of ~50 ns. The optical-to-optical efficiency is 39% when the pump power is 14.5W. A Ho:YLF laser operating in the range of 2.05 micrometers can be tuned over several characteristic lines of CO2 absorption. Experimentally, a diode pumped Ho:Tm:YLF laser has been successfully used as the transmitter of coherent differential absorption lidar for the measurement of CO2 with a repetition rate of 5 Hz and pulse energy of 75 mJ. For coherent detection, high repetition rate is required for speckle averaging to obtain highly precise measurements. However, a diode pumped Ho:Tm:YLF laser can not operate in high repetition rate due to the large heat loading and up-conversion. A Tm:fiber laser pumped Ho:YLF laser with low heat loading can operate in high repetition rate. A theoretical model has been established to simulate the performance of Tm:fiber laser pumped Ho:YLF lasers. For continuous wave (CW) operation, high pump intensity with small beam size is suitable for high efficiency. For Q-switched operation, the optimal energy extraction relies on the pump intensity, pump volume, and pump duration which is inversely proportion to the repetition rate. CW and Q-switched Ho:YLF lasers with different linear cavity configurations have been designed and demonstrated for a 30 W Tm:fiber pump laser. The CW Ho laser slope efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiencies reach 65% and 55%, respectively. The pulsed laser efficiency depends on the repetition rate. For 1 kHz operation, the optical-to-optical efficiency is 39% when the pump power is 14.5W. Currently, the injection seeding success rate is between 99.4% and 99.95%. After a ten thousand pulses, the standard deviation of the laser frequency jitter is about 3 MHz. It meets the requirements of highly precise CO2 concentration measurement. In conclusion, an injection seeded, high repetition rate, Q-switched Ho:YLF laser has been developed for a coherent CO2 differential absorption lidar. This master-slave laser system has high optical-to-optical efficiency and seeding success rate. It can potentially meet the requirements of the coherent detection of CO2 concentration by a differential absorption lidar technique.
Here, a short focused laser pulse can generate a hot plasma, which expands then contracts and can eject a hot jet, the speed and direction of which is sensitive to the details of the plasma kernel. The coupling of thermal and chemical nonequilibrium plasma mechanisms with this hydrodynamic development is assessed with detailed simulations of a two-temperature, three-species plasma model. Time scales for electron recombination, thermal relaxation, and diffusion are compared to that of the plasma expansion to anticipate conditions in which these mechanisms might affect the vorticity generation that leads to the ultimate flow pattern. The effect of these mechanisms are analyzed through comparison with corresponding inert-gas and equilibrium models. Thermal-nonequilibrium effects are found to be weak due to rapid relaxation of the heavy-particle and electronic temperatures. In contrast, chemical equilibration occurs at a rate comparable to the expansion and thereby enhance both it and subsequent hydrodynamic mechanisms as the energy stored in ion formation during the preceding breakdown is released by electron recombination. Thermal conduction, enhanced by high-temperature free electrons, weakens the ejection.
Method based on statistical properties of weak pulse-positionmodulated (PPM) signal enables synchronization of receiver clock with received-signal time base. Method applies to weak optical M-ary PPM signals, for which there is only one pulse of length Tp transmitted during one of timeslots of length T in each successive interval of M timeslots. Method requires small dead time, Td, at beginning and end of each timeslot, during which pulse amplitude is zero.
The effect of ionizing radiation on the nonlinear optical properties of materials needs to be considered for applications that employ high-power laser pulses in extreme radiation environments. The Heraeus Infrasil302 optical quartz glass was irradiated by gamma rays, and its nonlinear absorption was measured using the open-aperture Z-scan technique with nanosecond laser pulses. Irradiation results in a negative nonlinear absorption coefficient whose magnitude increases with irradiation dose. Nonlinear absorption coefficients of -0.78, -1.14, -1.29, and -1.88~ × ~10 -13 m/W are measured for gamma doses of 600 krad, 1.2 Mrad, 3.6 Mrad, and 10 Mrad, respectively. Thermal annealing restores the optical properties of quartz-glass to their unirradiated values. It is suggested that metallic impurities introduced by the manufacturing process have a role in inducing saturated absorption in irradiated quartz glass, which manifests as negative nonlinear absorption coefficient, and is demonstrated by comparing Infrasil302 quartz results to equivalent irradiated measurements for Spectrosil2000 quartz.
Resonant four-photon scattering could nearly double frequencies of intense laser pulses in plasma. However, transverse slippage between pulses presents a technological challenge, while collinear four-photon scattering is forbidden for classical light dispersion in plasma. Nonlinear renormalization of intense laser pulses can enable collinear four-photon resonance. However, such a very intensity-sensitive resonance is difficult to maintain for evolving pulses. Remarkably, there is a lower-dimensionality submanifold of the resonant four-photon manifold where the evolving pulses stay in resonance. Furthermore this could enable an all-optical frequency doubling of mildly relativistic-intense laser pulses in collinear geometry, advantageously free of the transverse slippage challenges.
The effect of laser pulse duration on energy coupling into a planar silicon target is investigated in experiments at the OMEGA-EP facility by varying the laser pulse length τ —spanning 3 orders of magnitude from 100 ps to 10 ns—while maintaining a constant peak laser intensity, I 0 = 5 × 10 14 W/ cm 2 . In theoretical models, the ablation pressure primarily scales for a given material with laser intensity and wavelength, which are all fixed variables here, allowing us to explore the specific role of laser pulse duration. Two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations benchmarked with optical probing of the expanding plasma show that the pulse duration is critical for the ablation pressure to reach a steady state. Moreover, the pulse duration impacts shock decay and multiple wave effects, which strongly dictate the evolving shock profile that propagates within the laser-shocked target as ultimately measured by rear-surface diagnostics. The shock velocities inferred from the theoretical model, after considering shock decay, impedance matching, and shock Hugoniot, are found to be in good agreement with velocimetry measurements. However, discrepancies are observed with simulations for the shorter (0.1 ns) and longer (10 ns) pulse durations, which are respectively attributed to unaccounted contributions of kinetic absorption mechanisms and instabilities in simulations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Electron-impact ionization and electron attachment cross sections of radicals and excited molecules were measured using an apparatus that consists of an electron beam, a molecular beam and a laser beam. The information obtained is needed for the pulse power applications in the areas of high power gaseous discharge switches, high energy lasers, particle beam experiments, and electromagnetic pulse systems. The basic data needed for the development of optically-controlled discharge switches were also investigated. Transient current pulses induced by laser irradiation of discharge media were observed and applied for the study of electron-molecule reaction kinetics in gaseous discharges.
A study is reported on the spatially coherent beam formation from an array of four Nd-glass lasers and on mode locking of their longitudinal modes. The results indicate a nearly 16 times increase in radiance. For mode locking, only a single modulator is required. A spatial filter in the optical cavity performs the spatially coherent beam formation and the precision synchronization of the mode-locked pulses at the output mirror of the optical cavity.