High-power Ti:sapphire laser at 820 nm for scanning ground-based water-vapor differential absorption lidar

The Ti:sapphire (TISA) laser transmitter of the mobile, three-dimensional-scanning water-vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) of the University of Hohenheim is described in detail. The dynamically-stable, unidirectional ring resonator contains a single Brewster-cut TISA crystal, which is pumped from both sides with 250 Hz using a diode-pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser. The resonator is injection seeded and actively frequency-stabilized using a phase-sensitive technique. The TISA laser is operating near 820 nm, which is optimum for ground-based water-vapor DIAL measurements. An average output power of up to 6.75Wwith a beam quality factor of M² < 2 is reached. The pointing stability is