Abstract
Diode laser-pumped thulium holmium sensitized yttrium lithium fluoride (Tm,Ho:YLiF4) is emerging as the most favored solid-state laser crystal for use in an Earth-orbiting 2 μn coherent Doppler lidar instrument such as the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS). These lasers have benefitted from much recent effort in which improvements in several performance categories have been demonstrated.1,2,3 However, such applications demand precise spectral control and stability: for example, a LAWS instrument incorporating a scanning telescope with the design objective of 1 m s-1 velocity resolution requires a local oscillator with an intrinsic stability <1 MHz and frequency agility with rapid tunability over a ~6-GHz range for dynamic spacecraft-induced Doppier shift compensation.
© 1994 Optical Society of America
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