The M-Pulse from Northrop Grumman is a compact, scalable fiber laser developed for space-based Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instruments. Operating at 1064 nm, it has high-frequency pulse repetition rates of up to 20 kHz and power levels up to 300 watts. This fiber laser technology is flexible enough to apply to a broad range of missions, including ice or terrain elevation mapping, biomass measurement, structural characterization, and atmospheric composition and ozone measurements.
The current M-Pulse product family consists of configurations at three power levels: 20, 150, and 300 Watts. These power levels are produced with a pulse width of less than 2 ns, and a pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz for the M-Pulse 20 version, and 20 kHz for the M-Pulse 150 and 300 versions.