Control of intensity distribution and spectra through resonator design for the SABLE propagation experiments

摘要

Abstract: Characterization of atmospheric turbulence and thermal blooming for high energy laser propagation has been conducted for the Scaled Atmospheric Blooming Experiment under controlled experimental conditions. To enhance thermal blooming with a high brightness, moderate power laser beam, a hydrogen fluoride chemical laser, producing six major lines, P1(7), P1(8), P1(9), P2(7), P2(8), and P2(9), was utilized. This paper summarizes design options and the design and operation of an X-folding scheme and the resulting quad-pass resonator, which produced a spectrum shift of 2 J-lines, a near-field irradiance distribution that was more uniform along the flow direction, had less line-to- line variation in near-field irradiance distribution, and produced twice the far-field power after atmospheric propagation, when compared to a more conventional double-pass resonator.!6