The main design principles of external cavity quantum cascade lasers with ultra-fast tuning in a broad spectral range for combustion and explosion diagnostics will be discussed. Specifically, laser active region design and overall system design will be covered.
Rapid progress is being made in directed energy studies towards the development of laser weapons. Systems are now planned for deployment on a number of different platforms, to counter multiple threat scenarios. This paper addresses some of the principal challenges.
Methods for facilitating the fast energy release of aluminum to enhance detonation performance will be discussed. The energy release rates of milligram-quantity samples have been compared by measuring the laser-induced shock wave velocities and tracking the formation of AlO on both the microsecond- and millisecond-timescales.
High-resolution optical optical diagnostics have long been used to characterize the expansion and electron density of dense laser plasmas. We describe recent studies of remotely-created dense laser plasmas produced by laser air-filaments that project high intensity laser light to distances of a kilometer.