The Workshop on Tunable Solid State Lasers for Remote Sensing was held at Stanford University in October 1984 to assess the state of the art in tunable solid state lasers for remote sensing from satellite platforms. The value of conducting global remote sensing measurements of atmospheric chemistry, climate, and weather in the 1990s is now established. What is not yet defined, however, is the status of the developing tunable laser technology that must meet both the scientific requirements and the space platform constraints. This workshop was convened by the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assess the status and progress in tunable solid state laser sources for remote sensing. The workshop was organized to facilitate information exchange across a number of technologies from remote sensing requirements to crystal growth of the materials important for the development of the tunable laser sources. The emphasis was on the recent developments in tunable solid state laser sources necessary to meet the future transmitter requirements for global remote sensing. A goal of the workshop was to form recommendations to NASA on the current and future prospects for solid state laser technology that will allow remote sensing measurements from air, shuttle, and free-flying satellite platforms. The emphasis was on solid state laser sources because they offer the best potential for meeting the demanding requirements of compact size, good efficiency, and long operational lifetimes required for future space station and free-flying platform operation.

This collection of authoritative reviews by leading experts provides a broad and instructive introduction to the most advanced techniques for generating coherent light in the mid-infrared region of the spectrum. With a wealth of up-to-date references – also available online.

Work in the stabilization of monolithic Nd: YAG lasers and the application of these lasers to nonlinear optical frequency conversion is discussed. The intrinsic stability of semiconductor diode laser pumped solid state lasers has facilitated a number of demonstration in external resonant cavity harmonic generation and stable optical parametric oscillation. Relative laser frequency stabilization of 0.3 Hz was achieved, and absolute stability of a few hundred hertz is anticipated. The challenge is now to reproduce this frequency stability in the output of tunable nonlinear optical devices. Theoretical and experimental work toward this goal are continuing. Byer, Robert L. Unspecified Center NAGW-1760..

In June 1984 a conference on visible and IR tunable solid-state lasers was held in La Jolla, California. The proceedings were published as the first volume of this series, Tunable Solid State Lasers *. The emphasis of this meeting focused on discerning unified themes in the generic areas of: - Laser host/dopant identification and growth procedures, - Theoretical analysis to elucidate fundamental tunable laser principles, - Experimental investigations on laser spectroscopy to which theoretical analyses and models can be anchored, and - Auxiliary technology developments in efficient laser pumping sources (diodes, ftashlamps). Subsequent to the La Jolla conference, two topical meetings were held, co-sponsored by the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Optical Society of America (OSA). The contents of Tunable Solid-State Lasers II comprise the pro ceedings of the second of these two, held at Rippling River Resort, Zigzag, Oregon, June 4-6, 1986. In addition to the four areas of attention in the La Jolla meeting, pa pers on color-center and new rare-earth lasers, and on nonlinear frequency shifting were also given. In a fashion similar to the previous meetings, the informal atmosphere of the conference and meeting site was conducive to constructive interaction among the attendees. A total of 54 papers were scheduled for presentation, 20 of which were invited and 34 contributed.

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the scientific and indu strial communities in tunable solid state vibronic lasers. Much of this has been spurred by the user desirous of obtaining compact primary laser sources (independent of nonlinear optical frequency shifts) throughout the visible and near infra-red spectral regi ons. To further motivate and stimul ate re search and development in this area, workshops sponsored by the Laser Divi sion of the US ArmY Night Vision Electro-Optics Laboratory (NVEOL) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia were held during 1-3 April 1981 and 16-17 June 1983 at Keystone and NVEOL, respectively. The consensus of opinion of the partici pants at these workshops was that any successful program leading to the iden tification and development of vibronic tunable laser materials in the visible and IR must include coordinated activity between crystal growers, theoreti cal and experimental investigators into the fundamental processes of vibro nic lasing, and laser device engineers. Continued interaction between govern ment, industry, and academia was encouraged in order to establish a unified approach to these areas and, when necessary, redefine and redirect program matic activity. The organization of this 1st Annual Conference on Tunable Solid State La sers held at the La Jolla Institute 13-15 June 1984, was based around the latest results in tunable vibronic materials and laser development, but structured ina manner consi stent wi th the recommendati ons of the NVEOL workshops.

Long range remote sensing from airborne or other highly mobile platforms will require high average power tunable radiation from very compact and efficient laser systems. The solid state laser pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) has emerged as a leading candidate for such high average power, widely tunable sources. In contrast to laboratory systems, efficiency and simplicity can be the decisive issues which determine the practicality of a particular airborne remote sensing application. The recent advent of diode laser pumped solid state lasers has produced high average power OPO pump sources which are themselves both compact and efficient. However, parametric oscillator technology which can efficiently convert the average powers provided by these pump sources remains to be demonstrated. In addition to the average power requirement, many airborne long range sensing tasks will require a high degree of frequency multiplexing to disentangle data from multiple chemical species. A key advantage in system simplicity can be obtained, for example, if a single OPO can produce easily controlled multispectral output. In this paper the authors address several topics pertaining to the conversion efficiency, power handling, and multispectral capabilities of OPOs which they are currently investigating. In Section 2, single pulse conversion efficiency issues are addressed, while average power effects are treated in Section 3. Section 4 is concerned with multispectral performance of a single OPO. The last section contains a short summary and some concluding remarks.

Because of the favorable characteristics of solid-state lasers, they have become the preferred candidates for a wide range of applications in science and technology, including spectroscopy, atmospheric monitoring, micromachining, and precision metrology. Presenting the most recent developments in the field, Solid-State Lasers and Applications focuses on the design and applications of solid-state laser systems. With contributions from leading international experts, the book explores the latest research results and applications of solid-state lasers as well as various laser systems. The beginning chapters discuss current developments and applications of new solid-state gain media in different wavelength regions, including cerium-doped lasers in the ultraviolet range, ytterbium lasers near 1μm, rare-earth ion-doped lasers in the eye-safe region, and tunable Cr2+:ZnSe lasers in the mid-infrared range. The remaining chapters study specific modes of operation of solid-state laser systems, such as pulsed microchip lasers, high-power neodymium lasers, ultrafast solid-state lasers, amplification of femtosecond pulses with optical parametric amplifiers, and noise characteristics of solid-state lasers. Solid-State Lasers and Applications covers the most important aspects of the field to provide current, comprehensive coverage of solid-state lasers.