Diode laser generating 3-ns pulses for a high resolution lidar. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pershin, S M; Grishin, M Ya; Zavozin, V A; Makarov, V S; Lednev, V N; Fedorov, A N; Myasnikov, A V; Turin, A V
• Is Part Of: Quantum electronics. Volume 51:Number 5(2021)
• Page Start: 423
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: diode laser -- lidar -- magmatic gases -- Earth's crust deformation -- monitoring of geophysical processes.; Quantum electronics -- Periodicals; 537.5
• DOI: 10.1070/QEL17544
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1063-7818

Abstract

Abstract: An AlGaAs laser (907 nm, 0.2 μJ) with a 3-ns pulse duration and eye-safe energy density below 1 μJ cm -2 is developed for lidar application. The laser is composed of three stacked diodes in a plastic housing. An external pump current generator based on discrete elements with an FMMT417 bipolar transistor switch is assembled on a printed circuit board together with the laser. A lidar based on this laser and a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) as a detector is used to monitor aerosols with a resolution of 10 cm inside the tunnel of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory near the Elbrus volcano. An abrupt three-fold increase in aerosol emanation of yet unknown nature is recorded for the first time. The absence of the Earth's crust disturbance traces in the signal of a laser interferometer with a resolution of 1.6 × 10 -11 m testifies to a high sensitivity of the lidar for monitoring geodynamic processes.