Graham S. Allen

The PLATO Dome A Site-Testing Observatory : instrumentation and first results

The PLATeau Observatory (PLATO) is an automated self-powered astrophysical observatory that was deployed to Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau, in 2008 January. PLATO consists of a suite of site-testing instruments designed to quantify the benefits of the Dome A site for astronomy, and science instruments designed to take advantage of the unique observing conditions. Instruments include CSTAR, an array of optical telescopes for transient astronomy; Gattini, an instrument to measure the optical sky brightness and cloud cover statistics; DASLE, an experiment to measure the statistics of the meteorological conditions within the near-surface layer; Pre-HEAT, a submillimeter tipping radiometer measuring the atmospheric transmission and water vapor content and performing spectral line imaging of the Galactic plane; and Snodar, an acoustic radar designed to measure turbulence within the near-surface layer. PLATO has run completely unattended and collected data throughout the winter 2008 season. Here we present a detailed description of the PLATO instrument suite and preliminary results obtained from the first season of operation.

Gattini: a multisite campaign for the measurement of sky brightness in Antarctica

We present the Gattini project: a multisite campaign to measure the optical sky properties above the two high altitude Antarctic astronomical sites of Dome C and Dome A. The Gattini-DomeC project, part of the IRAIT site testing campaign and ongoing since January 2006, consists of two cameras for the measurement of optical sky brightness, large area cloud cover and auroral detection above the DomeC site, home of the French-Italian Concordia station. The cameras are transit in nature and are virtually identical except for the nature of the lenses. The cameras have operated successfully throughout the past two Antarctic winter seasons and here we present the first results obtained from the returned 2006 dataset. The Gattini-DomeA project will place a similar site testing facility at the highest point on the Antarctic plateau, Dome A, with observations commencing in 2008. The project forms a small part of a much larger venture coordinated by the Polar Research Institute of China as part of the International Polar Year whereby an automated site testing facility called PLATO will be traversed into the DomeA site. The status of this exciting and ambitious project with regards to the Gattini-DomeA cameras will be presented.

High average power lasers for future particle accelerators

Lasers are of increasing interest to the accelerator community and include applications as diverse as stripping electrons from hydrogen atoms, sources for Compton scattering, efficient high repetition rate lasers for dielectric laser acceleration, peta-watt peak power lasers for laser wake field and high energy, short pulse lasers for proton and ion beam therapy. The laser requirements for these applications are briefly surveyed. State of the art of laser technologies with the potential to eventually meet those requirements are reviewed. These technologies include diode pumped solid state lasers (including cryogenic), fiber lasers, OPCPA based lasers and Ti:Sapphire lasers. Strengths and weakness of the various technologies are discussed along with the most important issues to address to get from the current state of the art to the performance needed for the accelerator applications. Efficiency issues are considered in detail as in most cases the system efficiency is a valuable indicator of the actual abi...

The PLATO observatory: robotic astronomy from the Antarctic plateau

PLATO is a 6 tonne completely self-contained robotic observatory that provides its own heat, electricity, and satellite communications. It was deployed to Dome A in Antarctica in January 2008 by the Chinese expedition team, and is now in its second year of operation. PLATO is operating four 14.5cm optical telescopes with 1k×1k CCDs, a wide-field sky camera with a 2k×2k CCD and Sloan g, r, i filters, a fibre-fed spectrograph to measure the UV to near-IR sky spectrum, a 0.2m terahertz telescope, two sonic radars giving 1m resolution data on the boundary layer to a height of 180m, a 15m tower, meteorological sensors, and 8 web cameras. Beginning in 2010/11 PLATO will be upgraded to support a Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor and three AST3 0.5m schmidt telescopes, with 10k×10k CCDs and 100TB/annum data requirements.

Scalable waveguide design for three-level operation in Neodymium doped fiber laser

We have constructed a double clad neodymium doped fiber laser operating on the three-level 4F3/2→4I9/2 transition. The laser has produced 11.5 W at 925 nm with 55% slope efficiency when pumped at 808 nm, comparable to the best previous results for a double-clad fiber configuration on this transition. Higher power pumping with both 808 nm and 880 nm sources resulted in an output of 27 W, albeit at lower slope efficiency. In both cases, output power was limited by available pump, indicating the potential for further power scaling. To suppress the stronger four-level 4F3/2→4I11/2 transition we developed a waveguide that provides spectral filtering distributed along the length of the fiber, based on an all-solid micro-structured optical fiber design, with resonant inclusions creating a leakage path to the cladding. The waveguide supports large mode areas and provides strong suppression at selectable wavelength bands, thus easing the restrictions on core and cladding sizes that limited power scaling of previous approaches.

1.2W laser amplification at 1427nm on the 4 F 3/2 to 4 I 13/2 spectral line in an Nd 3+ doped fused silica optical fiber.

A 9.3dB improvement in optical gain and a 100x improvement in total optical power over prior published experimental results from the ⁴F_3/2 to ⁴I_13/2 transition in an Nd³⁺ doped fused silica optical fiber is demonstrated. This is enabled via an optical fiber waveguide design that creates high spectral attenuation in the 1050-1120nm-wavelength range, a continuous spectral filter for the primary ⁴F_3/2 to ⁴I_11/2 optical transition. A maximum output power at 1427nm of 1.2W was attained for 43mW coupled seed laser power and 22.2W of coupled pump diode laser power at 880nm a net optical gain of 14.5dB. Reducing the coupled seed laser power to 2.5mW enabled the system to attain 19.3dB of gain for 16.5W of coupled pump power. Four issues limited results; non-optimal seed laser wavelength, amplified spontaneous emission on the ⁴F_3/2 to ⁴I_9/2 optical transition, low absorption of pump light from the cladding and high spectral attenuation in the 1350-1450nm range. Future fibers that mitigate these issues should lead to significant improvements in the efficiency of the laser amplifier, though the shorter wavelength region of the transition from 1310nm to >1350nm is still expected to be limited by excited state absorption.

E-band Nd3+ amplifier based on wavelength selection in an all-solid micro-structured fiber

A Nd3+ fiber amplifier with gain from 1376 nm to 1466 nm is demonstrated. This is enabled by a wavelength selective waveguide that suppresses amplified spontaneous emission between 850 nm and 1150 nm. It is shown that while excited state absorption (ESA) precludes net gain below 1375 nm with the exception of a small band from 1333 nm to 1350 nm, ESA diminishes steadily beyond 1375 nm allowing for the construction of an efficient fiber amplifier with a gain peak at 1400 nm and the potential for gain from 1375 nm to 1500 nm. A peak small signal gain of 13.3 dB is measured at 1402 nm with a noise figure of 7.6 dB. Detailed measurements of the Nd3+ emission and excited state absorption cross sections suggest the potential for better performance in improved fibers. Specifically, reduction of the fiber mode field diameter from 10.5 µm to 5.25 µm and reduction of the fiber background loss to <10 dB/km at 1400 nm should enable construction of an E-band fiber amplifier with a noise figure < 5 dB and a small signal gain > 20 dB over 30 nm of bandwidth. Such an amplifier would have a form factor and optical properties similar to current erbium fiber amplifiers, enabling modern fiber optic communication systems to operate in the E-band with amplifier technology similar to that employed in the C and L bands.

Raman gain of SiC as a potential medium for Raman lasers

We have investigated stimulated Raman scattering in the 4H polytype of SiC, due to its excellent thermal conductivity which is of great importance for power scaling of Raman lasers. Spectroscopy verifies the sample’s polytype and precludes any significant admixture of other polytypes. Tests indicate the moderate optical quality of this commercially available sample. Using pump-probe measurements around 1030 nm, we find the Raman gain coefficient of the major peak at 777 cm-1 to be 0.46 cm/GW. Although this value is only modest, calculations and experience with other Raman materials indicate that Raman lasing of 4H SiC should be possible with reasonable intensities of 1064-nm pulsed pumping.