Project Title:
Large-Aperture, High-Resolution, Tunable, Fabry-Perot Etalons
08.03-1416
912035
Large-Aperture, High-Resolution, Tunable, Fabry-Perot Etalons
Physical Optics Corporation
2545 West 237th Street, Suite B
Torrance
CA
90505
Gajendra
Savant
213-320-3088
GSFC
NAS5-31936
139
08.03-1416
912035
Abstract:
Large-Aperture, High-Resolution, Tunable, Fabry-Perot Etalons
A prototype large-aperture, high-resolution Fabry-Perot (FP) etalon, which uses holographic
coherently coupled cavity mirrors with phase conjugate enhanced recording techniques,
will be designed, fabricated, and tested. The firm has recently shown, theoretically,
that holographic Fabry-Perot (HFP) etalons can achieve one-to-two orders of magnitude
better finesse and contrast when compared with conventionally coated Fabry-Perot
etalons for a given substrate quality. Also, because of the nature of the recording
of the holographic mirrors, they can be fabricated over large areas, and consequently
very-large-area FP etalons of significantly greater throughput will result. This
technological breakthrough also promises to be relatively easy to fabricate and
consequently should yield a cost-effective end item. An excellent application of
these HFPs will be to the detector stage of LIDAR systems for earth atmospheric remote
sensing. As a consequence of using this new technology, NASA systems for LIDAR, DIAL
and Doppler measurements should realize improvements of signal/noise ratio in the
range of 3 to 10. In addition, daytime performance of a number of these systems will
be attainable.
Commercial applications for the HFP etalons will be to ground-based LIDAR, DIAL and
Doppler systems for environmental measurement and compliance. FTIR, Raman spectroscopy,
and fiber optic wavelength division multiplexing will improve their performance as
a result of incorporation of this new large aperture high-resolution filter.
holographic, Fabry-Perot, large aperture, high resolution, tunable