Design and Assembly Strategies for Two Laser-Optical Firing Systems

摘要

The design and characterization of small, ruggedized laser and optical subsystems is required for the continued development of robust laser driven optical firing systems. Typically, these subsystems must be capable of generating the needed optical energy, delivering that energy via fiber-optical cables and occupying a volume as small as possible. A novel beam splitting and fiber injection scheme has been proposed as a way to further reduce the volume of an earlier laser-optical firing systems. The new design approach incorporates two diffractive optical components; a beam homogenizer and a grating-splitter. Other modifications incorporated into this system included a custom designed fiber optical connector ferrule, capable of holding three optical fibers, a laser subsystem utilizing a dual-flashlamp pumping scheme and changes to the power supply to effectively drive the new flashlamp assembly. A set of prototype hardware was obtained and initial assembly and characterization has begun. The proposed alignment strategy will be discussed along with expected performance in the areas of: laser beam splitting efficiency, fiber injection efficiency, channel-to-channel energy balance, air breakdown margin and fiber-optical cable interchangeability. The information and performance obtained to date will be compared and contrasted with that from earlier systems on which this newly designed prototype is based. These earlier or "Baseline" systems, utilized more traditional beam splitting and fiber injection schemes. Earlier systems successfully utilized partially reflecting, dielectric coated mirrors, for beam splitting, plano-convex lenses, for fiber injection and discrete SMA-905 connectors fiber-optical cables.