Laser Source for Wireless Power Transmission in Space

Victor V. Apollonov

Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS, Moscow, Russia.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1101931                

Abstract

For many years the attempts to create a super long conductive channel were taken in order to study the upper atmosphere and to settle special tasks, related to the energy transmission. There upon the program of “Impulsar” creation represents a great interest, as this program in a combination with high-voltage high repetition rate electrical source can be useful to solve the above mentioned problems. It looks like as some kind of “renaissance of N. Tesla ideas” for the days of high power lasers. In the experiments the GDL CO₂-laser and solid state Nd YAG laser systems had been used. Theoretical and experimental investigation of high repetition rate P-P mode of operation for high power lasers (COIL, HF/DF) had been provided. The experimental realization of P-P regime has been demonstrated for 100 KW GDL and 1 kW LD pumped SSL. More than two orders of magnitude ratio of peak to average power with minimal energy loss have been obtained. High efficiency and excellent beam quality of disk laser mean that it can be widely used in modern science and industry. Disk laser idea, suggested by N. G. Basov 52 years ago, after implementation in the mono-module disk geometry can be used effectively for many important challenges faced by science and technological advances of the future. Today we can say that creation of megawatt class mono-module P-P disk laser with a large cross section of the active medium opens up great prospects for its use for solving of the set of problems: small satellites launching by lasers, formation of super-long conducting channels in space (vacuum and atmosphere), cleaning of the near-Earth space from the debris and so on.

Keywords

Laser, Conductive Channel, Laser Spark, Electric Discharge, Pulse-Periodic Laser, Energy Transmission

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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