Modeling of High-Average-Power Solid State Lasers

The proposed effort builds upon the significant progress of on-going efforts which employ MZA''''s WaveTrain wave-optics modeling tool to develop high-fidelity models of laser devices.  MZA has developed considerable expertise in applying WaveTrain to laser device modeling under non-SBIR contracts to AFRL, the HEL-JTO, the ABL SPO, and Textron.  Historically, WaveTrain has been used for beam control and atmospheric propagation modeling.  The advent of the use of complex beam control systems inside SSL resonator devices to provide alignment and amelioration of higher-order wave front errors has made WaveTrain a natural venue for the modeling of the laser devices themselves. BENEFIT: The government has sponsored the development of a number of diode-pumped slab-based high-power solid state laser (SSL) systems for application in directed energy weapons systems.  Within the DoD directed energy community, two major programs seek to develop such systems, the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) sponsored by the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO) and the High-Energy, Liquid-Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) sponsored by DARPA.  Because the development of high power SSL systems is a complex emerging technology, the maturation process involves considerable risk and uncertainties.  For this reason, it is desirable for the industry to have access to high-fidelity modeling techniques for the purpose of refining system designs and predicting their performance. By providing such techiniques this effort will reduce both the cost and risk of the development of high power solid state laser systems.