Laser Field Imaging Through Fourier Transform Heterodyne

Conference · Mon Apr 05 04:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:758929

Cooke, B J; Laubscher, B E; Olivas, N L; Galbraith, A E; Strauss, C E; Grubler, A C

The authors present a detection process capable of directly imaging the transverse amplitude, phase, and Doppler shift of coherent electromagnetic fields. Based on coherent detection principles governing conventional heterodyned RADAR/LADAR systems, Fourier Transform Heterodyne incorporates transverse spatial encoding of the reference local oscillator for image capture. Appropriate selection of spatial encoding functions allows image retrieval by way of classic Fourier manipulations. Of practical interest: (1) imaging may be accomplished with a single element detector/sensor requiring no additional scanning or moving components, (2) as detection is governed by heterodyne principles, near quantum limited performance is achievable, (3) a wide variety of appropriate spatial encoding functions exist that may be adaptively configured in real-time for applications requiring optimal detection, and (4) the concept is general with the applicable electromagnetic spectrum encompassing the RF through optical.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 758929
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-99-1055
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
COHERENT FIELD IMAGING
DETECTION
FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTROMETERS
HETERODYNE DETECTION
IMAGE PROCESSING
LASER IMAGING
LASER RADAR
PERFORMANCE