Abstract

This paper discusses the possibilities of lidar, laser space communication, and the search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, using iodine-photodissociation lasers, on the basis of which a virtually ideal receiver–transmitter pair with a quantum sensitivity limit has been created. This pair is capable of detecting signals consisting of only a few photons on the background of any natural source of thermal radiation and of emitting optical pulses of diffraction divergence with energy up to 10 J when operating in the pulsed-periodic regime and up to several kilojoules in single radiation pulses.

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Dispersion of gases in atomic iodine lasers at 1.315 μm

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