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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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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Deconvolution of diode-laser spectra

A new technique has been developed for deconvolving diode-laser spectra. This technique treats Doppler broadening, collisional broadening, and instrumental effects simultaneously. This technique is superior to previous deconvolution methods in the recovery of line-strength and transition-frequency information. A section of the ethane spectrum near 12 microns is used as an example. This new approach applies to any spectroscopy in which the instrumental resolution is narrower than actual linewidths.

Halsey, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Microgravity Diode Laser Spectroscopy Measurements in a Reacting Vortex Ring

The technique of Diode Laser Spectroscopy (DLS) with wavelength modulation is utilized to measure the concentration of methane in reacting vortex rings under microgravity conditions. From the measured concentration of methane, other major species such as water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen can be easily computed under the assumption of equilibrium chemistry with the method of Interactive Temperature with Assumed Chemistry (ITAC). The conserved scalar approach in modelling the coupling between fluid dynamics and combustion is utilized to represent the unknown variables in terms of the mixture fraction and scalar dissipation rate in conjunction with ITAC. Post-processing of the DLS measurements and the method of ITAC used in computing the species concentration are discussed. From the flame luminosity results, the increase in ring circulation appears to increase the fuel consumption rate inside the reacting vortex ring and the flame height for cases with similar fuel volumes. Preliminary results and application of ITAC show some potential capabilities of ITAC in DLS. The measured concentration of methane, and computed concentrations of water and carbon dioxide agree well with available results from numerical simulations.

Chen, Shin-Juh↗
NASA NTRS2001

Microgravity Diode Laser Spectroscopy Measurements in a Reacting Vortex Ring

The technique of Diode Laser Spectroscopy (DLS) with wavelength modulation is utilized to measure the concentration of methane in reacting vortex rings under microgravity conditions. From the measured concentration of methane, other major species such as water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen can be easily computed under the assumption of equilibrium chemistry with an iterative method called ITAC (Iterative Temperature with Assumed Chemistry). The conserved scalar approach in modelling the coupling between fluid dynamics and combustion is utilized to represent the unknown variables in terms of the mixture fraction and scalar dissipation rate in conjunction with ITAC. Post-processing of the DLS and the method used to compute the species concentration are discussed. From the flame luminosity results, ring circulation appears to increase the fuel consumption rate inside the reacting vortex ring and the flame height for cases with similar fuel volumes but different ring circulations. The concentrations of methane, water, and carbon dioxide agree well with available results from numerical simulations.

Chen, Shin-Juh↗
NASA NTRS1989

Etalons Help Select Modes Of Laser Diodes

Stability under changes of temperature and current increased. External etalon aligned with laser diode provides optical feedback enhancing stability of operation in one or few of longitudinal laser modes. Provides amount of feedback varying periodically with wavelength. Also helps to increase stability by reducing sensitivity to minor feedback from external objects other than etalon.

Maynard, William L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Transient behavior of an actively mode-locked semiconductor laser diode

Experimental investigation was carried out to study the transient regimes during the buildup and decay of the active mode-locked state in a laser diode. The mode locking was achieved through a sinusoidal modulation of the diode current with the laser in an external cavity. The pulse shape evolution and the time constants for the buildup and decay were determined.

Auyeung, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Diode laser saturation spectroscopy of NH3

Saturation of molecular transitions using a tuneable diode laser was demonstrated for the first time using a standing-wave cavity configuration with an f/8 beam focussed at the sample. Observed saturation effects in NH3 transitions near 888/cm include sub-Doppler (Lamb-dip) resonances at line center.

Jennings, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Diode laser measurements of CO line widths at planetary atmospheric temperatures

A tunable diode laser spectrometer and the sweep integration technique were used to measure hydrogen-broadened half-widths and nitrogen-broadened half-widths of eight lines between P(1) and P(15) in the CO fundamental at several temperatures between 94 and 298 K. The results are of interest in connection with studies of the atmospheres of earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan.

Varanasi, P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Study of pseudo noise CW diode laser for ranging applications

A new Pseudo Random Noise (PN) modulated CW diode laser radar system is being developed for real time ranging of targets at both close and large distances (greater than 10 KM) to satisy a wide range of applications: from robotics to future space applications. Results from computer modeling and statistical analysis, along with some preliminary data obtained from a prototype system, are presented. The received signal is averaged for a short time to recover the target response function. It is found that even with uncooperative targets, based on the design parameters used (200-mW laser and 20-cm receiver), accurate ranging is possible up to about 15 KM, beyond which signal to noise ratio (SNR) becomes too small for real time analog detection.

Lee, Hyo S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Blocked impurity band detectors applied to tunable diode laser spectroscopy in the 8- to 28-micron range

A novel tunable diode laser spectrometer operating at 8-28 microns is described. A blocked impurity band Si:As chip is employed as detector. This device operates in this wavelength range with high detectivity and adequate frequency response for the high-sensitivity techniques used. A combination of sweep averaging and second-harmonic detection at 22 kHz yielded signal-to-noise ratios of 1200 at wavelengths above 20 microns. The sensitivity and spectral resolution achieved are an order of magnitude better than those of Fourier instruments in this range, with an improvement in instrument time response of about 3000. Several molecular bands of CO2 and N2O are observed for what is, to our knowledge, the first time with this instrument. Examples of spectral line measurements are presented.

Sirota, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

High-speed joint-transform optical image correlator using GaAs/AlGaAs semi-insulating multiple quantum wells and diode lasers

We demonstrate a compact real-time optical image correlator using diode lasers and a semi-insulating GaAs/AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well (SI-MQW) device as the holographic element. With only 3 mW of power incident upon the SI-MQW device, the correlation is obtained in 1 microsec and can be erased in as fast as 2 microsec, which presents the possibility of a system capable of 3 x 10 exp 5 correlations/s. We also show that images can be stored for a controllable length of time (2-25 microsec), which presents possibilities for the use of the SI-MQW device as a data or image buffer memory.

Partovi, A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Throughput comparison of microscope objectives and custom lenses for laser diode output beam collimation

The efficiency with which microscope objectives and custom lenses collimate laser diode emission was measured. Four microscope objectives of 10, 21, 45, and 60 power and two custom lenses of 1 and 0.8 power were used. An autocollimator system was used to measure throughput. It consisted of 1 m focal length lens, a 10 power microscope objective, and a 128-element G series Reticon linear array. Collimating throughput efficiency was defined as the ratio of measured collimated power to total laser output power. Two throughput efficiencies were obtained: one for the didoe operation below lasing and the other for the diode operation above lasing. The custom lenses had higher throughput efficiencies than the microscope objectives. The f/0.8 system provided better throughput efficiencies than the f/1.0 system.

Fuhr, P. L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Optimized Biasing of Pump Laser Diodes in a Highly Reliable Metrology Source for Long-Duration Space Missions

Optical metrology system reliability during a prolonged space mission is often limited by the reliability of pump laser diodes. We developed a metrology laser pump module architecture that meets NASA SIM Lite instrument optical power and reliability requirements by combining the outputs of multiple single-mode pump diodes in a low-loss, high port count fiber coupler. We describe Monte-Carlo simulations used to calculate the reliability of the laser pump module and introduce a combined laser farm aging parameter that serves as a load-sharing optimization metric. Employing these tools, we select pump module architecture, operating conditions, biasing approach and perform parameter sensitivity studies to investigate the robustness of the obtained solution.

808 mm diode pumps↗
NASA NTRS1978

Diode laser spectra of CC12F2 near 10.8 microns; air-broadening effects

A tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer with resolution of about 0.0001/cm was used to record air-broadened spectra of CC12F2 in two regions near 922.8/cm and 921.7/cm. In the 922.8/cm region the structure shows good intensity contrast at pressures corresponding to upper atmospheric pressures. The absorption features have a spacing of 0.014/cm, which is sufficiently wide to retain spectral structure at pressures as high as 48 torr or altitudes as low as 19 km. The apparent broadening is 2 MHz/torr. The single-line broadening coefficient for CC12F2 can be estimated to be 8 + or - 2 MHz/torr FWHM. In the 921.7/cm region the high-resolution structure is discernible up to 24 torr, but the intensity contrast is not sufficiently strong to be of use in analysis of stratospheric spectra.

Jennings, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Frequency stability and offset locking of a laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG monolithic nonplanar ring oscillator

The frequency stability of laser-diode-pumped, monolithic Nd:YAG solid-state unidirectional nonplanar ring oscillators was studied by heterodyne measurements. CW single-axial- and transverse-mode power of 25 mW at 1064 nm was obtained at a slope efficiency of 19 percent. Two independent oscillators were offset-locked at 17 MHz with frequency fluctuations of less than + or - 40 kHz for periods of 8 min.

Kane, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

0.87-micron CSP diode lasers for spaceborne communications

Index-guided channeled-substrate-planar (CSP) AlGaAs diode lasers are being developed for reliable, high-power operation for use as sources in spaceborne optical communications systems. Although most work on this AlGaAs structure has been aimed at optimizing performance at output wavelengths less than 8400 A, emission in the 8700 A regime is also of interest. In particular, such wavelengths are required for use in the direct detection laser transceiver to be incorporated into NASA's advanced communications technology satellite, in order to avoid absorption of the light by the atmosphere when communicating with ground-based terminals. Lowest order spatial mode and substantially single longitudinal mode output has been observed in 0.87-micron CSP devices in excess of 50 mW cw and 100 mW 50 percent duty-cycle, with rms phase-front aberrations measured to be about lambda/40.

Carlin, D. B.↗