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Completed TRL 4 (started at 2, targeting 4)
Based on our proprietary award-winning fiber laser technology, AdValue Photonics proposes to develop and demonstrate a novel water vapor LiDAR transmitter at 0.9 μm – a high-energy, high-peak-power, narrow-linewidth, fiber-based laser transmitter – which enables water vapor DIAL measurements in the 0.9 μm band. In the Phase I program, we will focus on the feasibility investigation of such a fiber-based, energy-scalable, pulsed laser transmitter at 935 nm for water vapor DIAL measurements. In the Phase II program, we will experimentally demonstrate this enabling technology by developing a deliverable prototype transmitter unit of such a high-pulse-energy narrow-linewidth laser at 935 nm laser at the end of the Phase II program.
The proposed laser transmitter system in this SBIR program is a fiber-based laser solution for airborne water vapor DIAL measurements – different from the current design of NASA’s HALO system – offering many advantages, such as higher efficiency, smaller SWaP, coherent detection capability, wide wavelength selectivity, compactness, and robustness. These advantages are all vital for airborne or spaceborne atmospheric water vapor measurements.
In addition to the specific NASA applications for airborne or spaceborne atmospheric water vapor measurements, a high-energy, high-peak-power, fiber-based lasers operating in the NIR spectral range could be an immediate alternative to a bulky Ti:sapphire laser for many spectroscopic applications.
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