Active track and beacon illuminator lasers, which are critical components of most high energy laser beam control systems, have benefited significantly over the past decade from technology advancements that have enabled more than an order of magnitude growth in average output power while maintaining excellent beam quality. An overview of how high energy laser system illuminator requirements are developed, along with a short history and current status of diode-pumped solid-state laser illuminator technology development in the United States, will be provided.

Date Published: 10 September 2004
PDF: 16 pages
Proc. SPIE 5414, Laser Technologies for Defense and Security, (10 September 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.554473

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5414:
Laser Technologies for Defense and Security
Gary L. Wood; John M. Pellegrino, Editor(s)