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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 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Alexandrite laser transmitter development for airborne water vapor DIAL measurements

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 This off-line laser has been replaced by a second alexandrite laser.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.

Chyba, Thomas H.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Analysis of intrapulse chirp in CO2 oscillators

Pulsed single-frequency CO2 laser oscillators are often used as transmitters for coherent lidar applications. These oscillators suffer from intrapulse chirp, or dynamic frequency shifting. If excessive, such chirp can limit the signal-to-noise ratio of the lidar (by generating excess bandwidth), or limit the velocity resolution if the lidar is of the Doppler type. This paper describes a detailed numerical model that considers all known sources of intrapulse chirp. Some typical predictions of the model are shown, and simple design rules to minimize chirp are proposed.

Moody, Stephen E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Simultaneous measurements of velocity and pressure fields in subsonic and supersonic flows through image-intensified detection of laser-induced fluorescence

An optical technique is presented for combined, spatially resolved measurements of two-dimensional velocity and pressure fields in compressible flows. The single-mode frequency of an argon laser is fixed in the wing of an absorption line of iodine molecules, seeded in an underexpanded round jet of nitrogen gas. The emitted fluorescence, being proportional to the amount of absorbed radiation and hence the absorption line-shape function, is detected with an intensified 100 x 100 photodiode array camera. A single-microchannel-plate image intensifier is fiber-optically coupled to the array in order to improve time resolution and SNR. Three components of the velocity vector in a cross-sectional plane are sequentially probed with four laser sheets from three different directions. By shifting the laser frequency in one of the sheets with a piezo-tuned intra-cavity etalon, the slope of the absorption line can be measured in situ in order to provide the required scaling factor for the velocity measurement. With its short measurement times of less than 250 ms, this method is well suited for blow-down wind tunnel experiments.

Hiller, B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Remote displacement measurements using a laser diode

A technique for measuring displacements remotely to minimum distances of 8 mm with a resolution of 2 microns is described. A dynamic interferometer method is employed using a frequency-ramped laser diode. A direct measurement of the period of the resulting beat signal is used to determine the displacement.

Beheim, G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Study of the second-order relativistic light deflection of the Sun using long-baseline fibre-linked interferometers: Laser-Interferometric Solar Relativity (LISOR) test

A propasal to study the second order light deflection in the solar gravitational field is presented. It is proposed to use 1 to 2 W frequency stabilized lasers on two microspacecraft about 0.25 degree apart in the sky with apparent positions near the Sun, and observe the relative angle of two spacecraft using ground based fiber linked interferometers with 10 km baseline to determine the second order relativistic light deflection effects. The first two years of work would emphasize the establishment of a prototype stabilized laser system and fiber linked interferometer. The first year, a prototype fiber linked interferometer would be set up to study the phase noise produced by external perturbations to fiber links. The second year, a second interferometer would be set up. The cancellation of phase drift due to fiber links of both interferometers in the same environment would be investigated.

Ni, Wei-Tou↗
NASA NTRS1995

Instantaneous flow measurements in a supersonic wind tunnel using spectrally resolved Rayleigh scattering

Results of a feasibility study to apply laser Rayleigh scattering to non-intrusively measure flow properties in a small supersonic wind tunnel are presented. The technique uses an injection seeded, frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser tuned to an absorption band of iodine. The molecular Rayleigh scattered light is filtered with an iodine cell to block light at the laser frequency. The Doppler-shifted Rayleigh scattered light that passes through the iodine cell is analyzed with a planar mirror Fabry-Perot interferometer used in a static imaging mode. An intensified CCD camera is used to record the images. The images are analyzed at several subregions, where the flow velocity is determined. Each image is obtained with a single laser pulse, giving instantaneous measurements.

Seasholtz, Richard G.↗
NASA NTRS1967

FM modulation of a CW laser beam

Analysis of frequency modulation and demodulation methods for continuous wave lasers in terms of amplitude noise sensitivity

LASER↗
NASA NTRS2003

High Precision Laser Range Sensor

The present invention is an improved distance measuring interferometer that includes high speed phase modulators and additional phase meters to generate and analyze multiple heterodyne signal pairs with distinct frequencies. Modulation sidebands with large frequency separation are generated by the high speed electro-optic phase modulators, requiring only a single frequency stable laser source and eliminating the need for a fist laser to be tuned or stabilized relative to a second laser. The combination of signals produced by the modulated sidebands is separated and processed to give the target distance. The resulting metrology apparatus enables a sensor with submicron accuracy or better over a multi- kilometer ambiguity range.

Dubovitsky, Serge↗
NASA NTRS1978

Stratospheric ozone measurement with an infrared heterodyne spectrometer

A stratospheric ozone absorption line in the 10 microns band was measured and resolved completely, using an infrared heterodyne spectrometer with spectral resolution of 5 MHz (0.000167 cm to -1 power). The vertical concentration profile of stratospheric ozone was obtained through an analytical inversion of the measured spectral line profile. The absolute total column density was 0.34 cm atm with a peak mixing ratio occurring at approximately 24 km. The (7,1,6) to (7,1,7) O3 line center frequency was found to be 1043.1775 + or - 0.00033 cm to toe -1 power, or 430 + or - 10 MHz higher than the P(24) CO2 laser line frequency.

Abbas, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Stratospheric ozone measurement with an infrared heterodyne spectrometer

A stratospheric ozone absorption line in the 10 micron band was measured and resolved completely, using an infrared heterodyne spectrometer with a spectral resolution of 5 MHz. The vertical concentration profile of stratospheric ozone was obtained through an analytical inversion of the measured spectra line profile. The absolute total column density was 0.32 plus or minus 0.02 cm-atm with a peak mixing ratio occurring at approximately 24 km. The (7,1,6) - (7,1,7) O3 line center frequency was found to be 1043.1772 plus or minus 0.00033 cm/1 or 420 plus or minus 10 MHz higher than the P(24) CO2 laser line frequency.

Abbas, M. M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Progress of 2.05 uM Fiber Laser Development for A Martian Co2 Dial

We have proposed a new concept for differential absorption lidar (DIAL) operating in the 2050 nm CO 2 absorption band for atmospheric CO 2 and pressure observations on Mars. This concept has earned us funding from NASA's PICASSO Program to advance 2050 nm fiber laser technology for future space applications. The laser design is an all-fiber master oscillator and power amplifier (MOPA) system. The master oscillator with pulse shaping and several stages of fiber preamplifiers has been built. Preliminary tests show the output pulse energy can reach 1 mJ, meeting our baseline goal. However, the current power amplifier design has an issue with undesired parasitic lasing at a different frequency, which exhausts pump energy and limits the laser energy. We have modified the power amplifier design to suppress parasitic lasing, and higher laser power energy is expected. To achieve high measurement accuracy, the laser frequency must be stabilized. A fraction of the master oscillator is split to lock the laser frequency to the center of the selected absorption line. The laser can then be shifted to a frequency far from the absorption line center, where extinction due to CO 2 and other trace gases is minimal, serving as the offline reference. The online wavelength is optimized at 2050.44156 nm, ensuring a CO 2 absorption optical depth (AOD) of approximately 1.1 at 3 km, which maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for measurements in the lower Martian atmosphere. At the conference, we will provide more details about this project and report on the progress of instrument development.

DIAL↗
NASA NTRS2021

Model-Independent Time-Delay Interferometry Based on Principal Component Analysis

With a laser interferometric gravitational-wave detector in separate free flying spacecraft, the only way to achieve detection is to mitigate the dominant noise arising from the frequency fluctuations of the lasers via postprocessing. The noise can be effectively filtered out on the ground through a specific technique called time-delay interferometry (TDI), which relies on the measurements of time-delays between spacecraft and careful modeling of how laser noise enters the interferometric data. Recently, this technique has been recast into a matrix-based formalism by several authors, offering a different perspective on TDI, particularly by relating it to principal component analysis (PCA). In this work, we demonstrate that we can cancel laser frequency noise by directly applying PCA to a set of shifted data samples, without any prior knowledge of the relationship between single-link measurements and noise, nor time-delays. We show that this fully data-driven algorithm achieves a gravitational-wave sensitivity similar to classic TDI.

Quentin Baghi↗
NASA NTRS1992

Frequency monitoring a LIDAR transmitter for pulse-by-pulse analysis and control

An electronic technique is described whereby the heterodyne mixing frequency of a pulsed LIDAR transmitter is displayed on a color-coded linear bar graph. The technique is of great utility for manually fine tuning the laser output frequency when the use of conventional frequency counters and spectrum analyzers is impractical in a rapidly firing system.

Esproles, Carlos↗
NASA NTRS1998

Continuous-Wave Single-Frequency Operation of Fabry-Perot Laser Diodes by Self-Injection Phase Locking Using Feedback from a Fiber Bragg Grating

Single-frequency operation of uncoated Fabry-Perot laser diodes is demonstrated by phase- locking the laser oscillations through self-injection seeding with feedback from a fiber Bragg grating. By precisely tuning the laser temperature so that an axial-mode coincides with the short-wavelength band edge of the grating, the phase of the feedback is made conjugate to that of the axial mode, locking the phase of the laser oscillations to that mode.

Duerksen, Gary L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Performance characteristics of narrow linewidth fiber laser pumped mid-IR difference frequency mixing light source for methane detection

A high-power, narrow-linewidth Yb fiber laser with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pumped difference frequency generation (DFG) in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal was investigated in detail. A mid-IR power of approximately 2.3 microW at 3.3 micrometers with a slope efficiency of 0.85 mW/W2 was achieved. A Doppler-broadened absorption spectrum of CH4 at 3038.497 cm-1 (3.2911 micrometers) was obtained with a 0.1-m long-gas cell at a pressure of 133 Pa. The linewidth of the DFG source was evaluated to be less than 96 MHz from the observed spectral linewidth. Real-time monitoring of CH4 (approximately 1.78 ppm) in ambient air in a multipass cell which has an optical path length of 10 m was also demonstrated.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1986

Laser velocimeter measurements in shrouded and unshrouded radial flow pump impellers

Shrouded and unshrouded versions of a four-vaned radial flow impeller with a design flow coefficient of 0.063 were tested in a volute pump using a two-component frequency-shifted laser velocimeter. Velocity profiles were measured at six flow rates and at four radial and six circumferential positions in the volute. The variations of the velocity from blade to blade and in the axial direction were measured and are presented. A passage vortex caused by tip leakage and relative casing wall velocity was found in the unshrouded impeller. The tip leakage did not accumulate in the suction wake region; the suction wake region was only 30 to 50 percent as large in the unshrouded impeller as compared to the shrouded impeller. The slip was 30 percent higher in the unshrouded impeller and the variation of slip with flow rate is presented. At no measured position in the impellers did the slip factor reach unity; the closest approach was 0.90. Reverse loadings of the vanes at outer radii were found for flow rates below the impeller/volute matching point for both impellers.

Hamkins, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Error Analysis of Wind Measurements for the University of Illinois Sodium Doppler Temperature System

Four-frequency lidar measurements of temperature and wind velocity require accurate frequency tuning to an absolute reference and long term frequency stability. We quantify frequency tuning errors for the Illinois sodium system, to measure absolute frequencies and a reference interferometer to measure relative frequencies. To determine laser tuning errors, we monitor the vapor cell and interferometer during lidar data acquisition and analyze the two signals for variations as functions of time. Both sodium cell and interferometer are the same as those used to frequency tune the laser. By quantifying the frequency variations of the laser during data acquisition, an error analysis of temperature and wind measurements can be calculated. These error bounds determine the confidence in the calculated temperatures and wind velocities.

Pfenninger, W. Matthew↗