Burst-mode femtosecond laser electronic excitation tagging for kHz–MHz seedless velocimetry

Abstract

Burst-mode femtosecond laser electronic excitation tagging (FLEET) of nitrogen is introduced for tracking the velocity field in high-speed flows at kilohertz–megahertz (kHz–MHz) repetition rates without the use of added tracers. A custom-built Nd:glass femtosecond laser is used to produce 500 pulses per burst with pulses having a temporal separation as short as 1 µs, an energy of 120 µJ, and a duration of 274 fs. This enables 2 orders of magnitude higher measurement bandwidth over conventional kHz-rate FLEET velocimetry. Characteristics of the optical system are described, along with a demonstration of time-resolved velocity measurements with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">%</mml:mi> </mml:math> precision in a supersonic slot jet.