Optomechanical design of a 150 mJ single frequency UV laser for the AEOLUS-2 mission

As part of the European Space Agency's AEOLUS mission, the global wind distribution in the atmosphere is currently being measured with a satellite based Doppler lidar. For the AEOLUS-2 mission, a more powerful laser is required which can emit single frequency pulses of 150 mJ energy at a pulse repetition rate of 50 Hz and a wavelength of 355 nm. Fraunhofer ILT is currently developing an engineering model of the laser beam source in cooperation with Airbus Defense and Space Germany. The work on the laser housing and heat removal system is performed by Airbus whereas the work on the laser opto-mechanical assembly is performed by ILT. This work is based on the results of previous projects and focuses on maximizing the use of heritage: The required optical parameters in the infrared have been validated by means of a breadboard demonstrator within the NIRLI project and the optomechanical platform suitable for AEOLUS-2 has been developed in the frame of the OPTOMECH, FULAS and MERLIN projects. For the engineering model presented in this article the proven optical design supplemented by a frequency tripling unit is transferred to the proven and to a large extent space qualified optomechanical platform with an adapted heat removal system. The design is ready, pending the detailed review.