Compact, lightweight CO/sub 2/ lasers for SDIO applications. Final report, 30 September 1988-31 March 1989

Technical Report · Tue Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 1989

OSTI ID:5774090

Jacob, J

During the past decade, substantial investments have been made in the development of gas-discharge-pumped CO/sub 2/ lasers for military and civilian applications. The DoD community and SDIO in particular is developing compact, lightweight CO/sub 2/ lasers for airborne and spaced-based radar applications directed toward target ranging, imaging, and discrimination. These CO/sub 2/ laser systems are being developed under the SDIO Lowkater Program, in the Airborne Laser Experiment (ALE) Program by the Army/SDC and in Lincoln Laboratory's space based CO/sub 2/ laser radar research and development program. The three major components of a CO/sub 2/ laser radar are the laser head and flow loop, the pulsed-power system and the optics and beam-control system. In this report, SRL presents a novel self-sustained discharge concept that should result in the stable and efficient extraction of large specific energies (50 J/liter atmosphere) for pulse lengths as long as 100 micro s.

• Research Organization: Science Research Lab., Inc., Somerville, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5774090
• Report Number(s): AD-A-207052/2/XAB; SRL-07-F-1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
CARBON DIOXIDE LASERS
PERFORMANCE
CONTROL SYSTEMS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
EXTRACTION
LENGTH
OPTICS
PROGRESS REPORT
PULSES
STABILITY
DIMENSIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
GAS LASERS
LASERS
NATIONAL DEFENSE
SEPARATION PROCESSES
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)
990500 - Civilian Defense- (-1987)