Narrow-band tunable laser system for a lidar facility

A unique ultraviolet laser system has been developed for a lidar intended to detect nitrogen oxide molecules in the atmosphere. The electric-discharge KrF laser system is capable of producing a highly coherent laser beam with practically the same energy over a spectral range of 247.5–249.5 nm. At the edge of the amplification band in the range 247.5–247.8 nm, the system produces a beam of energy 0.3 J, pulse duration 16 ns, and spectral line width 2 pm. Atmospheric sounding by using this beam with an energy density of 200 mJ/cm 2 in the scattered signal has detected noise in the 226 and 236 nm bands whose intensity increases the laser beam pulse repetition rate and energy density.