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Compact, Frequency Agile, Broadly Tunable, IR Differential Absorption Lidar for Remote Sensing
Phone: (301) 989-1896
Remote sensing of chemical emissions from concealed sources, such as concealed chemical manufacturing plants, or internal combustion engines, from airborne and ground based mobile platforms is a high defense priority. We propose to develop an innovative, miniature, rugged, rapidly tuned, differential absorption lidar for detecting low concentrations of chemical species with sufficient sensitivity (100ppb) and accuracy (10%), for a 5-10km range. The crucial component for this lidar is a high repetition rate (<1kHz), frequency agile, widely tunable (1.5-5.5 um), 1mJ/pulse quasi phase-matched optical parametric oscillator (OPO), pumped by a diode-pumped Yb:YAG tunable laser. This laser systems provides both the on- and off-line lidar pulses. High laser efficiency (>60%) is obtained by employing Yb:YAG which has the smallest quantum deficit between the pump (940nm) and lase wavelenths (1.02-1.06um). Compactness, frequency agility, and broad IR tuning range are obtained by utilizing a fixed PPRTA (poling period =31um)) OPOand rapidly tuning the pump wavelength. Atmospheric and topographical backscattered signals collected by a 35cm aperture telescope are detected by a cooled HgCdTe detector. In Phase I a comprehensice design of the lidar will be performed besides feasibilty demonstration with a broad-band lidar. In Phase II, chemical specie measurements will be demonstrated with a prototype lidar.
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