Several single mode TEA CO2 lasers have been constructed and evaluated with the aim of providing frequency stabilized sources for various coherent infrared radar systems. Methods including injection locking, intra-cavity selective amplification, unstable resonators, short cavities and pulse amplification have been combined with various stabilization techniques to produce frequency stabilized output pulse energies from millijoules to several joules with pulse lengths ranging from fifty nanoseconds to several microseconds. Pulse to pulse frequency instabilities of 50 kHz have been obtained over long time periods for a hybrid system and pulse repetition rates approaching 1000 per second are anticipated for the oscillator amplifier system. Intra pulse frequency characteristics have been measured (chirp) and a theoretical model has been developed to explain the observed behaviour.

Date Published: 30 April 1982
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 0300, Physics and Technology of Coherent Infrared Radar I, (30 April 1982); doi: 10.1117/12.932586

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0300:
Physics and Technology of Coherent Infrared Radar I
Robert C. Harney, Editor(s)