Fast and widely-tunable mid-IR laser spectrometer for lunar landers

This new laser work will focus on lunar landers where the active laser measurement from such landers allows for the remote identification of water ice on the surface in the absence of sunlight. Previously, a spectroscopic lidar for this purpose have used multiple laser sources. This new laser approach is compact, has no moving parts, and has continuous wavelength tunability. The targeted wavelength range is 2.9~3.7 μm, which covers the spectral absorption lines of water and hydrocarbons. The goal is to achieve quasi-continuous-wave output with >10 mW of peak power to allow measurement within ~1-km of the rover. The footprint of the laser source is smaller than that of a cell phone. This proposal seeks to develop and demonstrate a fast and continuously tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser source that will greatly enhance the measurement capability of laser reflectance spectrometers, and replace multiple fixed-wavelength lasers with one tunable laser. The core of the proposed tunable laser is a nonlinear optical frequency conversion pumped by a 1.65-μm laser with a periodically-poled waveguide crystal. The high-power, widely-tunable 1.625~1.675 μm distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser output is efficiently converted to 2.9~3.7 μm photons by the monolithic optical parametric oscillator, which is formed by coating end faces of the waveguide crystal. The wavelength tuning is performed electro-optically, requiring no moving parts and no optical switching.

Short range spectroscopic lidars, in-situ spectrometers.; Lunar landers, asteroid landers, comet landers, and other planetary landers.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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