ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2020, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 66-72

Powerful fiber optic amplifier in the range of 1640–1660 nm for lidar control of methane

V.I. Grigorievsky 1 
1 Kotelnikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics RAS, Fryazino Branch, Fryazino, Moscow Region, Russia
Accepted: 03.06.2020
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2020-17-3-66-72
A powerful Raman-based fiber-optic amplifier was created and tested at a wavelength of ~1653 nm with an output peak power of ~10 W for use in a lidar for monitoring methane in the Earth’s atmosphere. The amplifier consists of three parallel terminal amplifiers with an output power of more than 3 W each. The power from these amplifiers was summed on a fiber combiner for subsequent transmission of radiation to the transmitting lidar collimator. A theoretical calculation of the output power of a single amplifier showed that the efficiency of the Raman conversion increases if it uses a fiber with a thinner light guide core, which reduces both the pump power and the fiber length. The spectra of the master laser source and the output radiation of a multichannel amplifier are given, which are close in shape to each other in the radiation scanning band. Some difference is observed out of the scanning band due to the higher noise level of the radiation after the amplifier. The measurements of the parameters of the methane absorption line in the Earth’s atmosphere on paths with reflection of light from cloud layers located at heights of up to 3.5 km are in good agreement with the theoretical calculation. The created amplifier also has the ability to increase the output power of more than 20 W when connecting four more terminal amplifiers. Such power of the lidar transmitter is capable of providing the energy potential for measuring gas concentration from a low-orbit spacecraft.
Keywords: lidar, fiber optic amplifier, Raman effect, atmosphere, optical transmitter
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