Designing a beam expander for dual-wave laser fluorescence lidar

摘要

This paper presents the design and the results of an aberration calculation of a beam expander consisting of the transmitter of a dual-wave laser aerosol-fluorescence lidar intended for the detection of contaminants of biogenic origin in the atmosphere. The transmitter is enabled to function at two strongly differing wavelengths by choosing optical materials that operate in the UV and IR regions, and that in combination minimize the spherical and chromatic aberrations. The fabricated transmitter made it possible to reduce the divergence of the laser radiation at wavelengths 1.064 and 0:266 μm by more than a factor of 7, thus ensuring that it can operate without refocusing.