Extinction of high-power laser radiation under adverse weather conditions.

The propagation of laser radiation over long distances can be significantly affected by atmospheric extinction due to precipitation as well as aerosol particles and molecules. The knowledge of the contribution of precipitation is critical to the operation of a variety of laser-based systems. The study of high-power laser transmission around 1 µm is of particular interest because several atmospheric transmission windows are located in this region. To investigate the effect of adverse weather conditions on laser transmission, free-space laser transmission experiments are conducted on the DLR test range in Lampoldshausen, Germany. A high-power laser with a wavelength of 1.03 µm is used for the transmission measurements in combination with calibrated power monitors. Local weather conditions are continuously monitored by meteorological instruments during the experiments. Extinction coefficients are derived from transmission measurements showing that the extinction for snow is 7 times higher than for rain, and the extinction for drizzle/rain is 4 times higher than for rain at a given precipitation rate of 1 mm/h. For a mixture of rain and snow, the extinction is comparable to that of rain, indicating that the water content strongly influences the optical properties and thus the extinction of laser radiation in mixed precipitation. A good relationship is found between the measured extinction coefficient and visibility for drizzle and rain and a slightly larger scatter of the data for snow. Furthermore, measured extinction coefficients are compared to the extinction coefficients based on the experimental size distributions of precipitation particles and geometric optics. A reasonable agreement is obtained for rain, with no improvement taking the forward-scattering into the detector aperture into account, and a much better agreement is obtained for snow when the forward-scattering contribution is included.

Unstable resonator with reduced output coupling.

The properties of a laser beam coupled out of a standard unstable laser resonator are heavily dependent on the chosen resonator magnification. A higher magnification results in a higher output coupling and a better beam quality. But in some configurations, an unstable resonator with a low output coupling in combination with a good beam quality is desirable. In order to reduce the output coupling for a particular resonator, magnification fractions of the outcoupled radiation are reflected back into the cavity. In the confocal case, the output mirror consists of a spherical inner section with a high reflectivity and a flat outer section with a partial reflectivity coating. With the application of the unstable resonator with reduced output coupling (URROC), magnification and output coupling can be adjusted independently from each other and it is possible to get a good beam quality and a high power extraction for lasers with a large low gain medium. The feasibility of this resonator design is examined numerically and experimentally with the help of a chemical oxygen iodine laser.

Off-axis negative-branch unstable resonator in rectangular geometry.

The application of an off-axis negative-branch unstable resonator to an active medium of rectangular geometry is examined. The presented unstable resonator consists of spherical mirrors and a scraper mirror. The adaptation to the rectangular cross section is performed by the scraper, which takes two different shapes. One shape resembles a rectangular bracket "[" and the other resembles the letter "L." The [ and L configurations correspond to a shift of the optical axis away from the center of the cross section, toward one of the edges or toward one of the corners, respectively. Both scraper setups are examined numerically and experimentally. Experiments are performed with a multikilowatt class chemical oxygen iodine laser. The active medium is characterized by a low amplification coefficient. Measured results of the intensity distribution in the far field and of the phase distribution in the near field are shown for both resonator configurations. Using the same resonator magnification, the setup with the L-shaped scraper has a lower output coupling and, therefore, a higher output power and a slightly higher beam divergence. The L-shaped scraper configuration is able to cover the gain medium completely.

Hybrid resonator in a double-pass configuration for a chemical oxygen iodine laser.

A double-pass negative-branch hybrid resonator is applied to a 10 kW chemical oxygen iodine laser. The resonator is folded in such a way that the dimension of the stable direction is reduced. The intensity distributions of the near and far fields of the laser beam and the sensitivity against tilts of the output mirror are investigated. A comparison between theory and experiment is performed. It is shown that the folded hybrid resonator provides a better beam quality and therefore a higher power density in the far field than a single-pass hybrid resonator. The sensitivity against tilts of the resonator mirrors in the stable direction is reduced.

COIL emission of a modified negative branch confocal unstable resonator.

A modified negative branch confocal unstable resonator (MNBUR) was coupled to the chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) device of the German Aerospace Center. It consists of two spherical mirrors and a rectangular scraper for power extraction. Experimentally measured distributions of the near- and far-field intensities and the near-field phase were found in close agreement to numerical calculations. The extracted power came up to approximately 90% of the power as expected for a stable resonator coupled to the same volume of the active medium. The output power revealed a considerable insensitivity towards tilts of the resonator mirrors and the ideal arrangement of the scraper was found to be straightforward by monitoring the near-field distributions of intensity and phase. The beam quality achieved with the MNBUR of an extremely low magnification of only 1.04 was rather poor but nevertheless in accordance with theory. The demonstrated consistency between theory and experiment makes the MNBUR an attractive candidate for lasers that allow for higher magnification. In particular, it promises high brilliance in application to 100 kW class COIL devices, superior to the conventional negative branch confocal unstable resonator.