Abstract.
This paper presents the construction, use and characterisation of a laser-induced sealed plasma shutter to clip off the nitrogen pulse tail of a CO2-TEA laser-based lidar dial system. Investigation of the optimum gas filling pressure, temporal profile of the clipped pulse, and the laser threshold power intensities to achieve ionisation growth and breakdown in helium, argon, and nitrogen are also presented. Values of these power density thresholds lie between 3×1011 W cm-2–5×1012 W cm-2, 2×1011 W cm-2–2×1012 W cm-2 and 3×1013 W cm-2–2×1014 W cm-2 for helium, argon, and nitrogen, respectively. The range resolution attainable with the present clipped pulses is 15 m, which is 30 times better than that readily obtained with the nitrogen-tailed pulses. Field measurements of the lidar returns with the clipped pulse from a co-operative target are presented.
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Received: 27 December 1999 / Revised version: 11 February 2000 / Published online: 27 April 2000
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Gasmi, T., Zeaiter, H., Ropero, G. et al. Plasma-based nitrogen tail pulse shutter for CO2-TEA lidar dial systems . Appl Phys B 71, 169–175 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400000285
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400000285