Accession Number:

AD1029818

Title:

Model for Atmospheric Propagation of Spatially Combined Laser Beams

Descriptive Note:

Technical Report,01 Dec 2015,23 Sep 2016

Corporate Author:

Naval Postgraduate School Monterey United States

Personal Author(s):

• Lee,Kum L.

Report Date:

2016-09-01

Pagination or Media Count:

101.0

Abstract:

This thesis developed a propagation model that can be used to investigate the performance of coherent and incoherent beam configurations subjected to diffraction and thermal blooming effects. The propagation model also provides an additional damage assessment parameterpower-in-the-bucketas well as the irradiance in the target plane for any laser wavelength. The propagation model results have target irradiance patterns similar to those obtained from Wave Train, although the peak irradiance differs by 30 due to differences in thermal blooming modeling. In addition, the propagation model can optimize certain beamlet configurations peak irradiance using a genetic algorithm. Based on all the simulation results, a 13-beamlet configuration is deemed to have highest peak irradiance and power-in-the-bucket than all the tested multiple beam configurations.

Descriptors:

• laser beams
• refractive index
• heat capacity
• of fusion
• light (electromagnetic radiation)
• free electron lasers
• laser resonators
• specific heat
• computer simulations
• genetic algorithms
• thermal blooming
• wave propagation
• diffraction

Subject Categories:

• Lasers and Masers

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE