Smith, Duane D. | Search NASA

NASA NTRS2000

Tunable Single-Frequency Near IR Lasers for DIAL Applications

Tunable single-frequency sources in the 2-4 micron wavelength region are useful for remote DIAL measurements of chemicals and pollutants. We are developing tunable single-frequency transmitters and receivers for both direct and coherent detection lidar measurement applications. We have demonstrated a direct-diode-pumped PPLN-based OPO that operates single frequency, produces greater than 10 mW cw and is tunable over the 2.5 - 3.9 micron wavelength region. This laser has been used to injection seed a pulsed PPLN OPO, pumped by a 1.064 micron Nd:YAG laser, producing 50-100 microJoule single-frequency pulses at 100 Hz PRF near 3.6 micron wavelength. In addition, we have demonstrated a cw Cr:ZnSe laser that is tunable over the 2.1 - 2.8 micron wavelength region. This laser is pumped by a cw diode-pumped Tm:YALO laser and has produced over 1.8 W cw. Tm- and Tm, Ho-doped single-frequency solid-state lasers that produce over 50 mW cw and are tunable over approximately 10 nm in the 2 -2.1 micron band with fast PZT tuning have also been demonstrated. A fast PZT-tunable Tm, Ho:YLF laser was used for a direct-detection column content DIAL measurement of atmospheric CO2. Modeling shows that that all these cw and pulsed sources are useful for column-content coherent DIAL measurements at several km range using topographic targets.

Henderson, Sammy W.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Surface control techniques for the segmented primary mirror in the large lunar telescope

The large lunar telescope is a proposed moon-based telescope which incorporates a sixteen-meter segmented primary mirror. An error budget is developed for the active control system of the primary mirror. A control methodology for the primary mirror is then described which utilizes piston sensors for measuring the relative piston error between adjacent segments as well as a separate sensor which measures the tilt of each segment with respect to the pointing direction of the telescope. A trade study is conducted in which the following types of tilt sensors are examined to determine their applicability to this program: stellar wavefront sensors, such as a Hartmann-Shack or a shearing interferometer; holographic optical elements; interferometers; scanning systems; and some nonoptical systems which electronically measure the relative tilt between adjacent segments. In addition, two independent methods of quantitatively verifying the performance of the telescope using either a phase retrieval algorithm or an image sharpening technique, both of which are based on the quality of a stellar image, are presented.

Gleckler, Anthony D.↗