This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9650, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Invited Panel Discussion, and Conference Committee listing.

The Er³⁺:YAG Solid State Heat-Capacity Laser (SSHCL) as a source for medium and high energy laser systems in the “eye-safe” range is currently under investigation at ISL. The aim is to obtain a robust laser source with low complexity, high beam quality (M² < 3) and scalable to 100 kW and beyond. In a SSHCL the laser medium is cooled only after the laser action has ended, resulting in low temperature gradients in the laser medium itself during operation. Previous investigations demonstrated the scalability of the SSHCL and up to 4.65 kW and 440 J in less than 800 ms have been achieved. Optical-to-optical efficiencies of more than 41% and slope efficiencies of over 51% has been obtained. The residual thermal gradients, due to non perfect pumping homogeneity, negatively affect the performance in terms of laser pulse energy, duration and beam quality. Using an intra-cavity adaptive optics system, beam aberrations were limited to less than 1/10 of the wavelength for each of the considered Zernike polynomials, and the shot duration lengthened by about 50%. In this paper we investigate how to further increase the SSHCL pulse duration. The influence of the crystal geometry on the pump distribution homogeneity and the pulse duration are analysed. We consider the use of a mechanical crystal changer for extending the laser pulse duration. By using a revolver with several crystals, we demonstrated that crystals can be correctly positioned in less than 100 ms, allowing a quasi-cw operation that can largely exceed the time constraints imposed by the heating of the crystal. Finally, we address the problem of measuring the laser beam quality. Since the current standard techniques are suitable only for stable cw lasers, they cannot be used for the SSHCL. A new kind of device, capable of measuring the M2 at intervals of less than 100 ms, is presented.

Ship defense system with a pulsed COIL (Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser) has been considered. One of the greatest threats for battle ships and carriers in warfare are supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs). A countermeasure is considered to be a supersonic RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) at first. A gun-type CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) should be used as the last line of defense. However since an ASCM can be detected at only 30-50km away due to radar horizon, a speed-of-light weapon is desirable as the first defense especially if the ASCM flies at >Mach 6. Our previous report explained several advantages of a giant pulse from a chemical oxygen laser (COL) to shoot down supersonic aircrafts. Since the first defense has the target distance of ~30km, the use of COIL is better considering its beam having high transmissivity in air. Therefore efficient operation of a giant-pulsed COIL has been investigated with rate-equation simulations. The simulation results indicate that efficient single-pass amplification can be expected. Also a design example of a giant-pulsed COIL MOPA (master oscillator and power amplifier) system has been shown, in which the output energy can be increased without limit.

A supercontinuum source with larger than 200 W average power covering 1 μm to beyond 1.7 μm is constructed in a four-stage master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) configuration. The process of power amplification and spectral evolution during supercontinuum generation and the influence of pulse duration on this process are investigated. For the signal light in normal dispersion region, Raman effect plays dominant role in the first phase and the power transfer from amplified signal light to long wavelength region can be substantially achieved. When the spectrum is extended across the zero dispersion wavelength, soliton effect becomes the main effect for spectral broadening and the power transfer efficiency is lower to make the signal light a high peak. With similar average output power, narrower seed pulse leads to higher peak power and can induce Stokes waves earlier which leaves longer fiber for soliton propagating. Thus the spectrum can be shifted to longer wavelength. However, the signal light becomes a higher spike. In a word, narrower seed pulse leads to higher signal peak and wider SC source.

An 81 W average-power all-solid-state sodium beacon laser at 589 nm with a repetition rate of 250 Hz is introduced, which is based on a novel sum frequency generation idea between two high-energy, different line widths, different beam quality infrared lasers (a 1064 nm laser and a 1319 nm laser). The 1064 nm laser, which features an external modulated CW single frequency seed source and two stages of amplifiers, can provide average-power of 150 W, beam quality M² of ~1.8 with ultra-narrow line width (< 100 kHz). The 1319 nm laser can deliver average-power of 100 W, beam quality M² of ~3.0 with a narrow line width of ~0.3 GHz. By sum frequency mixing in a LBO slab crystal (3 mm x 12 mm x 50 mm), pulse energy of 325 mJ is achieved at 589 nm with a conversion efficiency of 32.5 %. Tuning the center wavelength of 1064 nm laser by a PZT PID controller, the target beam’s central wavelength is accurately locked to 589.15910 nm with a line width of ~0.3 GHz, which is dominated mainly by the 1319 nm laser. The beam quality is measured to be M2 < 1.3. The pulse duration is measured to be 150 μs in full-width. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest average-power for all-solid-state sodium beacon laser ever reported.

We report on recent progress on our three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) modeling of supersonic diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs), taking into account fluid dynamics and kinetic processes in the lasing medium. For a supersonic Cs DPAL with laser section geometry and resonator parameters similar to those of the 1-kW flowing-gas subsonic Cs DPAL [A.V. Bogachev et al., Quantum Electron. 42, 95 (2012)] the maximum achievable output power, ~ 7 kW, is 25% higher than that achievable in the subsonic case. Comparison between semi-analytical and 3D CFD models for Cs shows that the latter predicts much higher maximum achievable output power than the former. Optimization of the laser parameters using 3D CFD modeling shows that very high power and optical-to-optical efficiency, 35 kW and 82%, respectively, can be achieved in a Cs supersonic device pumped by a collimated cylindrical (0.5 cm diameter) beam. Application of end- or transverse-pumping by collimated rectangular (large cross section ~ 2 - 4 cm²) beam makes it possible to obtain even higher output power, > 250 kW, for ~ 350 kW pumping power. The main processes limiting the power of Cs supersonic DPAL are saturation of the D2 transition and large ~ 40% losses of alkali atoms due to ionization, whereas the influence of gas heating is negligibly small. For supersonic K DPAL both gas heating and ionization effects are shown to be unimportant and the maximum achievable power, ~ 40 kW and 350 kW, for pumping by ~ 100 kW cylindrical and ~ 700 kW rectangular beam, respectively, are higher than those achievable in the Cs supersonic laser. The power achieved in the supersonic K DPAL is two times higher than for the subsonic version with the same resonator and K density at the gas inlet, the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency being 82%.

We report on a model of highly efficient static, pulsed K DPAL [Zhdanov et al, Optics Express 22, 17266 (2014)], where Gaussian spatial shapes of the pump and laser intensities in any cross section of the beams are assumed. The model shows good agreement between the calculated and measured dependence of the laser power on the incident pump power. In particular, the model reproduces the observed threshold pump power, 22 W (corresponding to pump intensity of 4 kW/cm²), which is much higher than that predicted by the standard semi-analytical models of the DPAL. The reason for the large values of the threshold power is that the volume occupied by the excited K atoms contributing to the spontaneous emission is much larger than the volumes of the pump and laser beams in the laser cell, resulting in very large energy losses due to the spontaneous emission. To reduce the adverse effect of the high threshold power, high pump power is needed, and therefore gas flow with high gas velocity to avoid heating the gas has to be applied. Thus, for obtaining high power, highly efficient K DPAL, subsonic or supersonic flowing-gas device is needed.

An analysis of radiation, kinetic and fluid dynamic processes in diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) is reported. The analysis is based on a three-dimensional, time-dependent computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) model. The CFD code which solves the gas conservation equations includes effects of natural convection and temperature diffusion of the species in the DPAL mixture. The gas flow conservation equations are coupled to the equations for DPAL kinetics and to the Beer-Lambert equations for pump and laser beams propagation. The DPAL kinetic processes in the Cs/CH4 (K/He) gas mixtures considered involve the three low energy levels, (1) n²S_1/2, (2) n²P_3/2 and (3) n²P_1/2 (where n=4,6 for K and Cs, respectively), three excited alkali states and two alkali ionic states. Using the CFD model, the gas flow pattern and spatial distributions of the pump and laser intensities in the resonator were calculated for end-pumped CW and pulsed Cs and K DPALs. The DPAL power and medium temperature were calculated as a function of pump power and pump pulse duration. The CFD model results were compared to experimental results of Cs and K DPALs.

This paper based on the talk presented at the Security plus Defence 2015 Conference held at Toulouse, France in September 2015. In this paper we present the results of our experiments on a comparative study of Cesium and Potassium based DPALs aimed to determine which of these two lasers has better potential for scaling to high powers. For both lasers we have chosen a so called “low pressure DPAL approach”, which uses buffer gas pressure of about 1 Atm for spin-orbit mixing of the exited states of alkali atoms to provide population inversion in the gain medium. The goal of this study was to determine power limiting effects, which affect performance of these DPALs, and find out how these limiting effects can be mitigated. The experiments were performed using both static and flowing gain medium. In our experiments, we studied the performance of both lasers in CW and pulsed modes with different pulse duration and observed output power degradation in time from the initial value to the level corresponding to the CW mode of operation. As a result of this study, we revealed some essential positive and negative features of both DPALs, which should be taken into account for power scaling experiments.

Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) modeling of subsonic (Mach number M ~ 0.2) and transonic (M ~ 0.9) diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs), taking into account fluid dynamics and kinetic processes in the lasing medium is reported. The performance of these lasers is compared with that of supersonic (M ~ 2.7 for Cs and M ~ 2.4 for K) DPALs. The motivation for this study stems from the fact that subsonic and transonic DPALs require much simpler hardware than supersonic ones where supersonic nozzle, diffuser and high power mechanical pump (due to a drop in the gas total pressure in the nozzle) are required for continuous closed cycle operation. For Cs DPALs with 5 x 5 cm² flow cross section pumped by large cross section (5 x 2 cm²) beam the maximum achievable power of supersonic devices is higher than that of the transonic and subsonic devices by only ~ 3% and ~ 10%, respectively. Thus in this case the supersonic operation mode has no substantial advantage over the transonic one. The main processes limiting the power of Cs supersonic DPALs are saturation of the D2 transition and large ~ 60% losses of alkali atoms due to ionization, whereas the influence of gas heating is negligible. For K transonic DPALs both the gas heating and ionization effects are shown to be unimportant. The maximum values of the power are higher than those in Cs transonic laser by ~ 11%. The power achieved in the supersonic and transonic K DPAL is higher than for the subsonic version, with the same resonator and K density at the inlet, by ~ 84% and ~ 27%, respectively, showing a considerable advantaged of the supersonic device over the transonic one. For pumping by rectangular beams of the same (5 x 2 cm²) cross section, comparison between end-pumping - where the laser beam and pump beam both propagate at along the same axis, and transverse-pumping - where they propagate perpendicularly to each other, shows that the output power and optical-to-optical efficiency are not affected by the pump geometry. However, the output laser beam in the case of end-pumped DPALs has a homogeneous spatial intensity distribution in the beam cross section, whereas for transverse-pumped DPALs the intensity varies significantly along the pumping axis (perpendicular to the resonator optical axis) and hence is strongly inhomogeneous in the laser beam cross section. Thus, higher brightness and better beam quality in the far field is achieved for the end-pumping geometry. Optimization of the resonator geometry for minimal gas temperature rise and minimal intra-resonator intensity (corresponds to a low ionization rate) is also reported.

Manpads offer a severe threat to both civilian and military airborne platforms. The present countermeasure systems include platform maneuver, flares and DIRCM systems. Recently an increasing interest is aimed at preemptive measures e.g. to detect, identify and counter the threat before any missile has been launched. This will emphasize the importance of detecting and analyzing other signatures than those treated in conventional DIRCM systems. These may include laser emission from the target, detection of retro-reflections from optical sights and seekers as well as the optical signatures of the weapon and operator including the aiming and tracking activity. We will exemplify some of the concepts by experimental results and discuss some of the system and technology challenges.

The performance of electro-optical platform protection systems can be degraded significantly by the propagation environment around the platform. This includes aero-optical effects and zones of severe turbulence generated by engine exhausts. For helicopters rotor tip vortices and engine exhaust gases that are pressed down by the rotor airflow form the so called downwash phenomena. The downwash is a source for perturbations. A wide range of spatial and temporal fluctuations in the refractive index of air can occur. The perturbations from the turbulent flow cause detrimental effects on energy delivery, angle of arrival fluctuations, jam-code transmission, tracking accuracy and imaging performance in general. Therefore the effects may especially have a severe impact on the performance of laser-based protection systems like directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM). The chain from passive missile detection and warning to obtaining an optical break-lock by the use of an active laser system will be influenced. To anticipate the installed performance of an electro-optical defensive aids suite (DAS) for helicopter platforms it is necessary to develop models for the prediction of the perturbations. Modelled results have to be validated against experimental findings. However, the data available in open literature on the effects of rotor downwash from helicopters on optical propagation is very limited. To collect necessary data and to obtain a first impression about the magnitude of occurring effects the European defence agency group (EDA) on “airborne platform effects on lasers and warning sensors (ALWS)” decided to design and perform a field trial on the premises of the Italian Air Force Flight Test Center in Pratica di Mare, Italy. ALWS is a technical arrangement under the Europa MoU among France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The transmission of high power laser radiation through the air is influenced by atmospheric turbulence. As a result the beam experiences variations regarding its position and its distribution, which increase with increasing propagation length. In order to analyze the atmospheric influence on the laser beam propagation a disk laser with a maximum output power of 6 kW and a wavelength of 1.03 μm is operated on the 130 m long free transmission laser test range at Lampoldshausen. The test range is equipped with a variety of sensors, which continuously monitor the current status of the weather conditions. Power sensors and camera systems at the beginning and the end of the test range measure the laser beam parameters before and after propagation. First measurements of atmospheric power transmission, diameter change of the laser beam and deviation of its center of gravity are performed on a sunny and on a rainy day and are compared with turbulence strength, visibility and rainfall. The results show good correlation between the optical parameters and the weather conditions. Following measurements will be performed at different weather conditions and seasons. Experimental results will be compared to a numerical analysis.

The hot exhaust gases from engines on helicopters are pushed down by the rotor in a turbulent flow. When the optical path of a laser beam or optical sensor passes through this region severe aberrations of the optical field may result. These perturbations will lead to beam wander and beam distortions that can limit the performance of optical countermeasure systems. To quantify these effects the Italian Air Force Flight Test Centre hosted a trial for the “Airborne platform effects on lasers and warning sensors” (ALWS) EDA-project. Laser beams were propagated from the airport control tower to a target screen in a slant path with the helicopter hovering over this path. Collimated laser beams at 1.55-, 2- and 4.6-μm wavelength were imaged with high speed cameras. Large increases in beam wander and beam divergence were found, with beam wander up to 200 μrad root-mean-square and increases in beam divergence up to 1 mrad. To allow scaling to other laser beam parameters and geometries formulas for propagation in atmospheric turbulence were used even though the turbulence may not follow Kolmogorov statistics. By assuming that the plume is short compared to the total propagation distance the integrated structure parameter through the plume could be calculated. Values in the range 10^-10 to 10^-8 m^1/3 were found when the laser beams passed through the exhaust gases below the helicopter tail. The integrated structure parameter values calculated from beam wander were consistently lower than those calculated from long term spot size, indicating that the method is not perfect but provides information about order of magnitudes. The measured results show that the engine exhaust for worst case beam directions will dominate over atmospheric turbulence even for kilometer path lengths from a helicopter at low altitude. How severe the effect is on system performance will depend on beam and target parameters.

Hyperspectral Infrared (IR) signature measurements are performed in military applications including aircraft- and –naval vessel stealth characterization, detection/lock-on ranges, and flares efficiency characterization. Numerous military applications require high precision measurement of infrared signature characterization. For instance, Infrared Countermeasure (IRCM) systems and Infrared Counter-Countermeasure (IRCCM) system are continuously evolving. Infrared flares defeated IR guided seekers, IR flares became defeated by intelligent IR guided seekers and Jammers defeated the intelligent IR guided seekers [7].

A precise knowledge of the target infrared signature phenomenology is crucial for the development and improvement of countermeasure and counter-countermeasure systems and so precise quantification of the infrared energy emitted from the targets requires accurate spectral signature measurements. Errors in infrared characterization measurements can lead to weakness in the safety of the countermeasure system and errors in the determination of detection/lock-on range of an aircraft. The infrared signatures are analyzed, modeled, and simulated to provide a good understanding of the signature phenomenology to improve the IRCM and IRCCM technologies efficiency [7,8,9]. There is a growing need for infrared spectral signature measurement technology in order to further improve and validate infrared-based models and simulations.

The addition of imagery to Spectroradiometers is improving the measurement capability of complex targets and scenes because all elements in the scene can now be measured simultaneously. However, the limited dynamic range of the Focal Plane Array (FPA) sensors used in these instruments confines the ranges of measurable radiance intensities. This ultimately affects the radiometric accuracy of these complex signatures. We will describe and demonstrate how the ABB hyperspectral imaging spectroradiometer features enhanced the radiometric accuracy of spectral signature measurements of infrared military targets.

We report the results of our recent experimental investigation of the modulation frequency detuning effect on the output pulse dynamics in a pulse modulated actively mode-locked ytterbium doped fiber laser. The experimental study shows the existence of five different mode-locking states that mainly depend on the modulation frequency detuning, which are: (a) amplitude-even harmonic/fundamental mode-locking, (b) Q-switched harmonic/fundamental mode-locking, (c) sinusoidal wave modulation mode, (d) pulses bundle state, and (e) noise-like state. A detailed experimental characterization of the output pulses dynamics in each operating mode is presented.