Abstract

This paper reviews the status of laser technology for the generation of artificial laser guide stars. The emphasis is on laser devices currently in use, under development, and planned. Lasers designed for resonant scattering in mesospheric sodium represent the major interest and area of greatest development. Mesospheric potassium and iron are metals of interest[1] since their wavelengths (769 and 372 nm, respectively) and nearly gaussian shaped absorption profiles are more easily reached by existing, solid-state laser materials such as Alexandrite and Ti:Sapphire. There is at least one example of lidar measurements using potassium as a mesospheric tracer[2]. Molecular oxygen and nitrogen are attractive since they are approximately 10 orders of magnitude more abundant than sodium but are problematic since conventional resonant excitation requires ultra-violet wavelengths. A few systems use or have used beacons generated by Rayleigh scattering.

© 1996 Optical Society of America