Geoff Andersen, U.S. Air Force Academy
Keywords: Adaptive Optics
Abstract:
We have written a detailed Monte Carlo code to determine the photon return from the sodium layer for different types of laser. The code captures the effects of magnetic field, radiation pressure, collision lifetime distribution and spin-exchange relaxation time on the multi-level sodium atom for CW and pulsed laser formats. We compare these results with those obtained from the Optical Bloch equations for a two level atom and from experimental data, where available. We discuss the effect of saturation and optimal pulse and spectral format of lasers for different applications.
Date of Conference: September 1-4. 2009
Track: Adaptive Optics