Widely Tunable Fast Semiconductor Laser Seed Source at 1030nm for LIDAR Remote Sensing

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a novel LIDAR instrument to meet the recommendations of the last decadal survey conducted by the National Research Council (NRC), which has recommended development and deployment of improved LIDAR remote sensing instruments. In order to meet this need, a critical component for the low SWaP implementation of this instrument is a tunable laser seed source operating in the 1020 – 1050 nm wavelength range. The seed source needs to switch wavelengths and stabilize quickly, and should be capable of shuttering with 35-40 dB extinction. The lanthanide-doped amplifier in the LIDAR system requires a 1-2 ns pulse. Development of this laser using Freedom Photonics’ epitaxial platform is the focus of our SBIR Phase II effort, currently in progress.

The GSFC LIDAR instrument will be capable of tracking both ground vegetation, ice, and snow simultaneously. Our unique approach, received in communication with GSFC, will allow for a simplified laser source, which will generate a large number of ground tracks, and scan them at high speed, using a push-broom approach previously proposed and reported on by GSFC. A similar solution was first proposed by a team from GSFC in 2007, for the LIST mission. Such an instrument would also be applicable to 3D imaging LIDAR for lunar landers.

Some key commercial applications in the remote sensing area are landscape assessment, air and water quality, floodplain mapping and management, forestry, oceanography and agriculture as well as geology and mineral exploration. An additional area is ophthalmic optical coherence tomography where an inexpensive, chip-scale solution for a laser source operating in the 1060nm range is highly desirable.

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