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Optics Express

One GHz linewidth, 33 line per mm, wide angle imaging filter at the potassium resonant line

Lipeng Qian, Sohail Zaidi, Richard B. Miles

Published Jan 1, 2006• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

This paper presents a narrow linewidth, high resolution, and high quantum efficiency imaging transmission filter based on optical trapping of resonance radiation in potassium vapor. The filter can be used to image radiation over a bandwidth narrow enough to fall within a Fraunhofer dark zone in the solar spectrum, and it can be applied to the imaging of flames, plumes or discharges containing potassium. It may also be applicable to the imaging of Raman scattering from a tunable laser. The spectral and imaging properties of the filter are demonstrated with a 1 cm aperture optically thick potassium cell illuminated by a narrow linewidth tunable laser. The spectral width at the potassium D2 line wavelength, 766.5 nm, is shown to be 1 to 2 GHz (.002 nm). At the line center, the quantum efficiency is better than 60% and the imaging resolution is better than 30 line pairs per mm. By employing a 200 micron "thin" potassium vapor cell, it is also shown that the filter maintains the high quantum efficiency (~50%) and good imaging capability (~20 lines per mm) across the 2 GHz spectral bandwidth of the cell. The "thin" cell has an out-of-band rejection of better than 1000. Its operation is demonstrated with a tunable laser as well as with broad band light from a potassium lamp and from a potassium chloride seeded flame.

DOI
10.1364/oe.14.011113

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This paper presents a narrow linewidth, high resolution, and high quantum efficiency imaging transmission filter based on optical trapping of resonance radiation in potassium vapor. The filter can be used to image radiation over a bandwidth narrow enough to fall within a Fraunhofer dark zone in the solar spectrum, and it can be applied to the imaging of flames, plumes or discharges containing potassium. It may also be applicable to the imaging of Raman scattering from a tunable laser. The spectral and imaging properties of the filter are demonstrated with a 1 cm aperture optically thick potassium cell illuminated by a narrow linewidth tunable laser. The spectral width at the potassium D2 line wavelength, 766.5 nm, is shown to be 1 to 2 GHz (.002 nm). At the line center, the quantum efficiency is better than 60% and the imaging resolution is better than 30 line pairs per mm. By employing a 200 micron "thin" potassium vapor cell, it is also shown that the filter maintains the high quantum efficiency (~50%) and good imaging capability (~20 lines per mm) across the 2 GHz spectral bandwidth of the cell. The "thin" cell has an out-of-band rejection of better than 1000. Its operation is demonstrated with a tunable laser as well as with broad band light from a potassium lamp and from a potassium chloride seeded flame.
A high efficiency, wide field of view imaging system which has ultra narrow linewidth for near infrared detection of missile plumes is presented in this paper. By taking advantage of the optical trapping feature of potassium vapor at its resonant wavelength, it is shown that a potassium vapor cell can be used as an imaging, narrow line width passband filter with a 2 theoretical acceptance solid angle. The passband of the filter can be a narrow as 1 GHz, and the maximum resolution is 33 lines per mm. The quantum efficiency of the refluorescence cell is measured to be>60%. I.
A narrow-band, gate-able matched optical filter with large extinction ratio and high transmission is required for ocean lidar applications at wavelength of 532 nm. Two types of filters, the induced dichroism excited-state atomic line (IDEAL) and excited state anomalous Faraday dispersion optical filter (ESFADOF), are studied. They are operating on the 4P1/2 to 8S1/2 excited states transition line of potassium vapor and a narrow band at 532 nm. The measured critical features of the IDEAL filter are: 1.3 GHz (i.e..01A) narrow pass band, approximately 45% peak transmission, high extinction coefficient in the order of 10-5, very fast rise time (<3ns) and a 15 ns decay time determined by resonant enhanced two photon transition. The physical mechanism of the IDEAL filter operation is explained in terms of resonant enhanced two photon transition. Good agreement between experiment and the derived theoretical model is achieved. The pertinent features of the excited (ESFADOF) filter were measured to be: approximately 15% peak transmission, high extinction coefficient in the order of 10-5, very fast rise time (<3ns), and a decay time in the tens of microsecond range governed by resonant photon trapping. The physical processes contributing to the ESFADOF filter action are resonant photon trapping and Faraday anomalous dispersion. The experimental results confirmed theoretical predictions. The applications of these filters are discussed in terms of improving the lidar system performance. Specifically, the narrow bandwidth of these filters eliminates the background noise caused by stray solar radiation and thereby enhances the dynamic range of the lidar system. Furthermore the fast efficient gating of the filters minimizes reflection from the ocean surface, which is several orders of magnitude higher than the return signal from underwater targets.
Narrow-bandwidth optical sources are readily available. However, tunable narrow-bandwidth, wide field-of-view optical filters are not available. The laser-pumped atomic vapor optical filters presented here are in principle tunable narrow-bandwidth, wide field-of-view optical filters. These filters can simultaneously provide high resolution (0.001 nm), wide field-of-view (±90°), high quantum efficiency, and electrically tunable optical filtering. These devices are ideally suited for extracting weak narrow-bandwidth signals buried in strong nonresonant optical background radiation. Potential applications of these fitters include laser communications, laser radar, detection of Raman radiation, and atomic spectroscopy.
Characteristics of a novel type of ultranarrow-band image detector have been experimentally studied. The principle of this new imaging approach is to detect a resonance-ionization and (or) fluorescence-imaging signal formed on a thin planar cell filled with atomic vapor. A planar vapor cell with a thickness of 1.6 mm was used for imaging 253.7-nm radiation by Hg atoms. One- and two-dimensional images were produced and detected with ionization and fluorescence-signal acquisition. The feasibility of atomic-vapor image detectors with a spectral resolution of several megahertz is discussed.
Abstract A nanometer-thin cell (in the direction of laser beam propagation) has been elaborated with the thickness of the atomic vapor column varying smoothly in the range of . The cell allows one to study the behavior of the resonance absorption over the D 1 line of potassium atoms by varying the laser intensity and the cell thickness (from to with the step where is the resonant wavelength of the laser). It is shown that despite the huge Doppler broadening ( at the cell temperature ), at low laser intensities a narrowing of the resonance absorption spectrum is observed for ( at FWHM) and , whereas for and the spectrum broadens. At moderate laser intensities narrowband velocity selective optical pumping (VSOP) resonances appear at and with the linewidth close to the natural one. A comparison with saturated absorption spectra obtained in a 1.4 cm-sized K cell is presented. The developed theoretical model well describes the experiment.
Narrow bandwidth optical sources are readily available. However, tunable narrow bandwidth, wide field-of-view optical filters are not available. The laser-excited optical filters (LEOF) presented here are in principle tunable narrow bandwidth, wide field-of-view optical filters. These filters can simultaneously provide high resolution (0.001 nm), wide field-of-view (2π), high quantum efficiency, and electrically tunable optical filtering. Narrow bandwidth operation of laser-pumped atomic vapor filters were first demonstrated by Gelbwachs et al1., by Marling et al.2, and recently by Chung et al.3 The first electrical tuning of these devices was demonstrated by Gelbwachs et. al.4 In addition, alkali vapor based LEOFs can operate on 130 transitions between 921 and 474 nm. LEOFs are ideally suited for extracting weak narrow bandwidth signals buried in strong nonresonant optical background radiation. Potential applications of these filters include laser radar, laser communications, detection of Raman radiation, atomic spectroscopy, etc.