Integrated diamond sapphire laser.

We use analytic expressions and simulations to examine a model laser gain element formed by integrating diamond and a solid state laser material, such as, Ti:sapphire. The gain element is designed to provide in a single composite structure the thermal management capabilities of diamond and the optical amplification of the laser material. The model results indicate low temperature and a specific radial dependence of the heat transfer coefficient at the material interfaces are needed to access the highest average powers and highest quality optical fields.

Safe delivery of optical power from space.

More than a billion gigawatts of sunlight pass through the area extending from Earth out to geostationary orbit. A small fraction of this clean renewable power appears more than adequate to satisfy the projected needs of Earth, and of human exploration and development of space far into the future. Recent studies suggest safe and efficient access to this power can be achieved within 10 to 40 years.

Full cycle, low loss, low distortion phase modulation from multilayered dielectric stacks with terahertz optical bandwidth.

We present a customized multilayered dielectric stack employed as a broadband phase modulator with 6.3 THz optical bandwidth. The bandpass modulator provides up to a full-cycle of near-uniform phase modulation across a defined signal spectrum with maximized transmission and minimized pulse phase distortion.

Multi-turn all-reflective optical gyroscope.

We use calculation and simulation to characterize an all-reflective monolithic gyroscopic structure that supports 3 sets of orthogonal, spatially dense and continuous helical optical paths. This gyroscope differs from current fiber optic and ring laser gyroscopes primarily in the free space multi-turn nature of the optical path. The design also creates opportunities for introducing gain while minimizing spontaneous emission noise from those gain regions.

Optical amplifier for space applications.

We describe an optical amplifier designed to amplify a spatially sampled component of an optical wavefront to kilowatt average power. The goal is means for implementing a strategy of spatially segmenting a large aperture wavefront, amplifying the individual segments, maintaining the phase coherence of the segments by active means, and imaging the resultant amplified coherent field. Applications of interest are the transmission of space solar power over multi-megameter distances, as to distant spacecraft, or to remote sites with no preexisting power grid.