Lasers for Lidar Applications

A brief overview is made of recent progress and current status of lasers for atmospheric lidarapplications. Emphasis is placed on recent developments in high-power or high PRF, fixed wavelength lasers. Improvements in solid-state (Ho, Nd, Tm), diode-pumping, CO2 and Dyelasers are covered, along with advances in new solid-state laser materials, non-linear opticalmaterials for OPO and frequency conversion, Raman shifting techniques, and recent advancesin better modeling of energy transfer dynamics in multi-level sensitized solid-state lasers.