The effect of self-focusing on laser space-debris cleaning

Abstract

A ground-based laser system for space-debris cleaning will use powerful laser pulses that can self-focus while propagating through the atmosphere. We demonstrate that for the relevant laser parameters, this self-focusing can noticeably decrease the laser intensity on the target. We show that the detrimental effect can be, to a great extent, compensated for by applying the optimal initial beam defocusing. The effect of laser elevation on the system performance is discussed.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/lsa.2014.40
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT)
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Systems analytics research institute (SARI)
Additional Information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs Works 3.0 Unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
Uncontrolled Keywords: laser,self-focusing,space debris
Publication ISSN: 2047-7538
Last Modified: 11 Mar 2024 08:14
Date Deposited: 03 Mar 2016 15:55
Full Text Link: http://www.natu ... lsa201440a.html
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PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2014-04-11
Accepted Date: 2013-12-25
Submitted Date: 2013-08-30
Authors: Rubenchik, Alexander M.
Fedoruk, Michail P.
Turitsyn, Sergei K. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-0101-3834)

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