AFIRE: fiber Raman laser for laser guide star adaptive optics

Abstract

Future adaptive optics systems will benefit from multiple sodium laser guide stars in achieving satisfactory sky coverage in combination with uniform and high-Strehl correction over a large field of view. For this purpose ESO is developing with industry AFIRE, a turn-key, rack-mounted 589-nm laser source based on a fiber Raman laser. The fiber laser will deliver the beam directly at the projector telescope. The required output power is in the order of 10 W in air per sodium laser guide star, in a diffraction-limited beam and with a bandwidth of < 2 GHz. This paper presents the design and first demonstration results obtained with the AFIRE breadboard. 4.2W CW at 589nm have so far been achieved with a ~20% SHG conversion efficiency.