A Novel Diode Pumped Alexandrite Ring Laser for Doppler Lidar

Doppler resonance lidars for the mesosphere (80-100 km altitude) require powerful pulsed lasers, operating at an atomic line such as Na (589 nm), K (770 nm) or Fe (372 nm or 386 nm). All-season measurements at remote places like Antarctica [1] are still nowadays challenging, since the whole equipment has to withstand month-long transportation by ship around the world under extreme challenging conditions. Finally, the complete system must be stable enough to operate routinely over years at hash environments without major breakdown since no access to spare parts is possible at such locations.