Ford Aerospace & Communications Corporation

Dudley A Roberts

John S Chudy

The relative intensity of the transmit beam and the local oscillator beam in a ladar diplexer can be continuously adjusted during operation by using a rotatable retardation plate with a slightly inclined 'C' axis to turn a polarized laser beam into a composite beam having two components polarized in mutually perpendicular directions. The relative intensity of the components is adjustable by varying the inclination of the 'C' axis. The composite beam is applied to the same polarizer element normally used to separate the return signal from the transmit beam. The polarizer acts as the beam splitter which separates the local oscillator beam from the transmit beam. The described configuration also saves one beam splitter and allows improved packaging and alignment of the diplexer.

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Costa Mesa, CA, United States of America

Dudley A Roberts