Dr. Norihito Saito Profile

Dr. Norihito Saito

at RIKEN

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Publications (11)

Proceedings Article | 12 July 2023 Open Access

Study of laser ablation induced impulse for laser space debris removal

Katsuhiko Tsuno, Satoshi Wada, Takayo Ogawa, Norihito Saito, Tadanori Fukushima, Toshikazu Ebisuzaki, Yusuke Nakamura, Akihiro Sasoh

Proceedings Volume 12777, 1277762 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2691109

KEYWORDS: Laser ablation, Second harmonic generation, Satellites, Laser irradiation, Plasma, Nd:YAG lasers, Pulsed laser operation, Pendulums, Astronomical imaging, Vacuum

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Even a low failure rate means that dozens of satellites could lose control and become debris. Because they are located in an operational orbit, they pose a serious problem. Therefore, a few active debris removal (ADR) ideas have been proposed, which is to tow and de-orbit debris satellites with rescue satellites similar to tugboats for shipwrecks. In these cases, physical contact, such as towing by wire, is a prerequisite. Mechanical coupling between satellites involves risks such as the collision between satellites and loss of attitude control at the time of coupling. Since no cooperation between the two satellites is not desirable, mechanical contact is very difficult when the debris has high angular momentum. On the other hand, the contactless debris removing idea, to irradiate debris satellites with lasers and use of the laser ablation induced impulse, has been proposed. In this approach ti, is important to accumulate data on how much impulse is generated by the plasma plume produced by laser ablation in a vacuum. A compact and efficient measurement device to measure this impulse has been developed. In this study, we investigated impulses generated by a 10ns Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064nm) and its second harmonic generation (SHG, 532nm) using a metal as a target for laser irradiation. The results show that the fundamental (1064nm) laser of about 100W can generate enough thrust to deorbit space debris with comparable mass to a small satellite from 1000km to 500km altitude in a year. SHG can be converted to impulse more efficiently than 1064nm. The use of 532nm alone, including the SHG generation efficiency, has less impact on the impulse generation effect than the use of 1064nm fundamental alone, without SHG. It was pointed out that the energy of the Nd:YAG laser effectively uses generation of impulse when the remaining fundamental components that could not be converted to SHG could be used to irradiate to generate ablation. Although the use of SHG is not effective in terms of 1064nm fundamental power including SHG generation efficiency, it is demonstrated that the energy of the Nd:YAG laser can be efficiently utilized by using the remaining fundamental components that could not be converted to SHG.

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Proceedings Article | 19 November 2012 Paper

All-solid-state rapidly tunable coherent 6-10 μm light source for lidar environmental sensing

Norihito Saito, Masaki Yumoto, Takayuki Tomida, Utako Takagi, Satoshi Wada

Proceedings Volume 8526, 852605 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.977170

KEYWORDS: Optical parametric oscillators, Light sources, LIDAR, Tunable lasers, Mid-IR, Pulsed laser operation, Optical amplifiers, Nonlinear crystals, Environmental sensing, Crystals

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Proceedings Article | 29 July 2010 Paper

The performance of the laser guide star system for the Subaru Telescope

Yoshihiko Saito, Yutaka Hayano, Meguro Ito, Yosuke Minowa, Sebastian Egner, Shin Oya, Makoto Watanabe, Masayuki Hattori, Vincent Garrel, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Olivier Guyon, Stephen Colley, Taras Golota, Norihito Saito, Akira Takazawa, Mayumi Ito, Hideki Takami, Satoshi Wada, Masanori Iye

Proceedings Volume 7736, 773653 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856484

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Fiber lasers, Sodium, Control systems, Laser guide stars, Laser systems engineering, Electroluminescence, Collimation, Mirrors, Diagnostics

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Proceedings Article | 9 August 2007 Paper

Coupled thermo-optical modeling of high-power operation of Tm, Ho:YLF solid-state lasers

Oleg Louchev, Yoshiharu Urata, Norihito Saito, Satoshi Wada

Proceedings Volume 6731, 67310D (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.751893

KEYWORDS: Crystals, Holmium, Thulium, Q switching, Absorption, Chromium, Solid state lasers, Laser crystals, Pulsed laser operation, Thermal effects

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Proceedings Article | 14 February 2007 Paper

New experimental results for SHG and DFG in AgGaGeS4

K. Miyata, V. Petrov, N. Umemura, K. Kato, N. Saito, S. Wada

Proceedings Volume 6455, 645514 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.698079

KEYWORDS: Second-harmonic generation, Crystals, Refractive index, Sapphire lasers, Solids, Optical parametric oscillators, Nd:YAG lasers, Gallium, Laser crystals, Silver

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Proceedings Article | 12 December 2006 Paper

Development of all-solid-state coherent 589 nm light source: toward the realization of sodium lidar and laser guide star adaptive optics

Norihito Saito, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Mayumi Kato, Akira Takazawa, Yutaka Hayano, Yoshihiko Saito, Meguru Ito, Hideki Takami, Masanori Iye, Satoshi Wada

Proceedings Volume 6409, 64091H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.697363

KEYWORDS: Sodium, Mode locking, Nd:YAG lasers, Light sources, Adaptive optics, LIDAR, Nonlinear crystals, Thermal effects, Laser guide stars, Crystals

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Proceedings Article | 28 June 2006 Paper

589 nm sum-frequency generation laser for the LGS/AO of Subaru Telescope

Yoshihiko Saito, Yutaka Hayano, Norihito Saito, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Akira Takazawa, Mayumi Kato, Meguru Ito, Stephen Colley, Matthew Dinkins, Michael Eldred, Taras Golota, Olivier Guyon, Masayuki Hattori, Shin Oya, Makoto Watanabe, Hideki Takami, Masanori Iye, Satoshi Wada

Proceedings Volume 6272, 627246 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671964

KEYWORDS: Mode locking, Nd:YAG lasers, Laser guide stars, Laser development, Nonlinear crystals, Fiber lasers, Laser systems engineering, Telescopes, Oscillators, Sodium

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Proceedings Article | 28 June 2006 Paper

Transmission characteristics of high-power 589-nm laser beam in photonic crystal fiber

Meguru Ito, Yutaka Hayano, Norihito Saito, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Mayumi Kato, Yoshihiko Saito, Akira Takazawa, Hideki Takami, Masanori Iye, Satoshi Wada, Stephen Colley, Matthew Dinkins, Michael Eldred, Taras Golota, Olivier Guyon, Masayuki Hattori, Shin Oya, Makoto Watanabe

Proceedings Volume 6272, 627245 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671972

KEYWORDS: Polarization, Laser scattering, Scattering, Optical fibers, Raman scattering, Telescopes, Relays, Sodium, Fiber lasers, Light scattering

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We are developing Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGSAO) system for Subaru Telescope at Hawaii, Mauna Kea. We achieved an all-solid-state 589.159 nm laser in sum-frequency generation. Output power at 589.159 nm reached 4W in quasi-continuous-wave operation. To relay the laser beam from laser location to laser launching telescope, we used an optical fiber because the optical fiber relay is more flexible and easier than mirror train. However, nonlinear scattering effect, especially stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), will happen when the inputted laser power increases, i.e., intensity at the fiber core exceed each threshold. In order to raise the threshold levels of each nonlinear scattering, we adopt photonic crystal fiber (PCF). Because the PCF can be made larger core than usual step index fiber (SIF), one can reduce the intensity in the core. We inputted the high power laser into the PCF whose mode field diameter (MFD) is 14 μm and the SIF whose MFD is 5 μm, and measured the transmission characteristics of them. In the case of the SIF, the SRS was happen when we inputted 2 W. On the other hand, the SRS and the SBS were not induced in the PCF even for an input power of 4 W. We also investigated polarization of the laser beam transmitting through the PCF. Because of the fact that the backscattering efficiency of exciting the sodium layer with a narrowband laser is dependent on the polarization state of the incident beam, we tried to control the polarization of the laser beam transmitted the PCF. We constructed the system which can control the polarization of input laser and measure the output polarization. The PCF showed to be able to assume as a double refraction optical device, and we found that the output polarization is controllable by injecting beam with appropriate polarization through the PCF. However, the Laser Guide Star made by the beam passed through the PCF had same brightness as the state of the polarization.

Proceedings Article | 28 June 2006 Paper

The laser guide star facility for Subaru Telescope

Yutaka Hayano, Yoshihiko Saito, Meguru Ito, Norihito Saito, Mayumi Kato, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Akira Takazawa, Stephen Colley, Matthew Dinkins, Michael Eldred, Taras Golota, Olivier Guyon, Masayuki Hattori, Shin Oya, Makoto Watanabe, Hideki Takami, Satoshi Wada, Masanori Iye

Proceedings Volume 6272, 627247 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672583

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Laser guide stars, Adaptive optics, Fiber lasers, Space telescopes, Laser systems engineering, Relays, Astronomy, Photonic crystal fibers, Diagnostics

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Proceedings Article | 25 October 2004 Paper

Design of laser system for Subaru LGS AO

Yutaka Hayano, Yoshihiko Saito, Norihito Saito, Kazuyuki Akagawa, Yukiko Kamata, Tomio Kanzawa, Tomio Kurakami, Naruhisa Takato, Stephen Colley, Michael Eldred, Thomas Kane, Olivier Guyon, Shin Oya, Makoto Watanabe, Masayuki Hattori, Taras Golota, Matthew Dinkins, Naoto Kobayashi, Yosuke Minowa, Miwa Goto, Nobuo Arimoto, Satoshi Wada, Hideki Takami, Masanori Iye

Proceedings Volume 5490, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551015

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Telescopes, Laser systems engineering, Laser guide stars, Adaptive optics, Optics manufacturing, Relays, Laser development, Laser optics, Mode locking

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Proceedings Article | 27 November 2001 Paper

Electronically tuned Ti:sapphire laser for optical sensing

Norihito Saito, Satoshi Wada, Hidetoshi Sato, Hideo Tashiro

Proceedings Volume 4491, (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.450169

KEYWORDS: Sapphire lasers, Diffraction, Acousto-optics, Acoustics, Laser applications, Laser systems engineering, Prisms, Tunable filters, Spectroscopy, Picosecond phenomena

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Showing 5 of 11 publications

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