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AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit

Narrow Linewidth Potassium Imaging Filter for Near Infrared Detection of Missile Plumes

Lipeng Qian, Sohail Zaidi, Richard B. Miles

Published Jan 10, 2005• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.2514/6.2005-825

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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.

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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.
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.
We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first atomic optical filter that uses velocity selection to achieve a passband width that is less than the Doppler width of the filtering transition. A narrow-linewidth pump laser is used to induce circular birefringence in a narrow velocity class of atoms in a dense potassium vapor for 694-nm light resonant with the 4P(3/2)-6S(1/2) transition. The filter displays a single 170-MHz passband at a peak transmittance of 9.5%. The bandwidth is an order of magnitude lower than that of previously demonstrated atomic optical filters.
When optical signals are embedded in background noise, narrowband optical filters are needed for receivers to achieve quantum limited performance. Such is typically the case with daytime optical communications and lidar. Narrowband filtered detectors. with acceptance bands of just a few picometers (pm) and high out of band rejection are well suited for these applications. The main thrust of this program has been the development of two means for narrowband detection: the Fast Atomic Line Filter/ Field Ion Detector (FALF/FID) and the Faraday magneto-optic filter. The FALF/FIDs transduce optical radiation within a narrow band directly into electrical signals. They are laser pumped filters based on the spectroscopy of atomic vapors. We designed, built and tested an infrared FALF/FID with an rise time of under 10 ns and a quantum efficiency of >25%. Faraday filters are imaging magneto-optic filters with passbands of a few pm. Faraday filters with passbands in the visable and the near infra-red were constructed and tested. Transmission spectra were measured, and found to agree closely with theoretical predictions. Both of these narrowband detection schemes must be used in conjunction with a tuned narrowband laser source. We developed a frequency locked alexandrite laser designed to match the acceptance band of a rubidium based filter. Finally, a preliminary demonstration of a laser interrogator using a tuned infrared diode laser in conjunction with a filtered receiver was demonstrated. Atomic line filter, Alkali metal vapor, Faraday filter, Active optical filter, Laser pumped filter, Magneto-optic filter, Laser communications.
The concept of the refluorescent atomic filter is shown in figure 2. Only photons at the resonant frequency of the atomic transition line are absorbed; all other photons pass through the cell without interference. If the atomic vapor is optically thick on the resonance absorption line, then photons absorbed by the atoms are trapped within the optical depth the entrance window of the cell. This trapping occurs at the same wavelength independent of the angle at which the photons arrive. In the absence of quenching. these photons undergo a random walk as they are absorbed and entitled the potassium atoms.
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.
A new resonance principle in optical filters has been utilized to simultaneously permit realization of wide field-of-view (∼2π sr) and very narrow acceptance bandwidths, approaching 0.01 Å. A light signal is transmitted through an outer bandpass filter into a resonantly absorbing atomic vapor, resulting in a fluorescence signal at a different wavelength which is transmitted through an inner bandpass filter. The outer and inner bandpass filters have no common transmission band, resulting in complete blockage of all optical signals (background noise) that are not resonantly shifted in wavelength by the intervening atomic vapor. This ’’resonance filter’’ principle is experimentally verified, and system parameters are discussed for filters utilizing potassium, rubidium, or cesium vapor at nine wavelengths between 420 and 532 nm.