These short courses were offered on 25 June 2007 in conjunction with the Solid State and Diode Laser Technology Review, held in Los Angeles, California. Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits were awarded for completion of these DEPS short courses.
Course 1. Fiber Lasers In Defense: Fibers, Components and System Design Considerations Classification: Unclassified Instructors: Duration: Half-day course, starts at 0800 Monday, 25 June CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: Fiber laser technology has the potential to make a significant impact in various defense applications, from LIDAR and remote sensing through to high energy laser weapons systems. This emerging laser technology offers many intrinsic advantages over traditional DPSSL, as highlighted by widespread publications in the research community demonstrating an impressive array of power scaling results, both CW and pulsed and at wavelengths from 1um to the eyesafe 1.5um and now 2um wavelengths. Obvious advantages associated with the technology are high wallplug efficiency leading to reduced electrical power requirements and easier system cooling, but also robustness, good beam quality and highly flexible system performance coupled with (remote) fiber delivery options make the technology unique in certain applications. The topics to be covered include: an explanation of the basic fiber parameters, double-clad fiber designs and covering such concepts such as large mode area fibers, modal/beam quality, PM fibers etc.; rare earth doping and spectroscopy of Yb-1um, Yb:Er-1550 and Tm-2um; component specifications and availability (couplers, isolators, seed laser diodes etc); limitations to scaling fiber devices, non-linear limitations, damage thresholds, etc.; design rules and concepts for pulsed fiber lasers and amplifier chains, recent results from the literature; and system specifications and the possible application areas, comparison and advantages over other laser technologies. This tutorial will cover the major aspects of designing and building a fiber laser, from the fiber itself through the various state of the art fiber components and discuss the system parameter space that best makes use of the intrinsic advantages of the technology. This course will enable you to:
Intended Audience: The tutorial is designed for researchers interested in investigating this application area but without the detailed knowledge of fibers and fiber based devices. Higher level managers and system designers/integrators will also be interested in the broad comparisons made between the fiber laser technology and current lasers and how this can impact future system designs. Instructor Biographies:
Course 2. Beam Quality Measures Classification: FOUO Instructor: Sean Ross, AFRL/DE Duration: Half-day course, starts at 1300 Monday, 25 June CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: This half day short course covers the general subject of high power laser beam quality. Topics covered include: definitions and applications of common measures of beam quality including Brightness, Power-in-the-bucket, M-squared, 'times diffraction limited', strehl ratio, beam parameter product etc. Special emphasis will be given to choosing an appropriate beam quality metric, tracing the metric to the application of the laser system and to various conceptual pitfalls which arise in this field. Material presented will come from general scientific literature as well as original work done by Dr. Ross and Dr. Pete Latham, both from the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate. Intended Audience: This course should benefit anyone with an interest in laser beam quality, including program managers, scientists, engineers, and military personnel who are not experts in the field. Instructor Biography: Dr. Sean Ross has been with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, High Power Solid State Laser Branch since he received his PhD from the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) in 1998. Research interests include nonlinear frequency conversion, high power solid state lasers, thermal management and laser beam quality. Beginning in 2000, frustration with commercial beam quality devices led to the work eventually presented in the Journal of Directed Energy, Vol. 2 No. 1 Summer 2006 "Appropriate Measures and Consistent Standard for High Energy Laser Beam Quality". This paper and its conference version (presented at the 2005 DEPS Symposium) have received awards from the Directed Energy Professional Society and the Directed Energy Directorate.
Course 3. Beam Directors 101 Classification: Unclassified Instructor: Bill Decker, Defense Acquisition University Duration:Full-day course, starts at 0800 Monday, 25 March CEUs awarded: 0.7 Course Description: The course will cover beam directors from the requirements and parameter that determine the overall approach to the development of a strategy to acquire and integrate a beam director into an HEL system. Subjects include:
Intended Audience: Program managers, lead engineers, systems engineers of HEL systems that will include a beam director. A technical background is useful, but not required. Instructor Biography: Mr. Decker is currently a Professor of Systems Engineering at the Huntsville Campus of the Defense Acquisition University. His experience includes over 25 years in electro-optics with ten years experience in high energy laser systems, including THEL, ABL, ATL and HELLADS, all while employed by Brashear (a division of L-3 Communications) in Pittsburgh, PA. Mr. Decker holds a MS in Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School and a BS in Engineering from Cornell University.
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