USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

G Charmaine Gilbreath

William S Rabinovich

Steven R Bowman

Peter G Goetz

Freddie Santiago

Carlos Font

James L Murphy

H E Senasack

Charles H Merk

Frederic M Davidson

Blerta Bajramaj

David Kim

A method of flattening a deformable mirror (DM) such as a piezoelectric DM to correct for distortion includes inputting an incident light beam into a reference beam optical path while blocking the DM response, recording a flat wavefront (&#x3a6;n, R) as a reference wavefront from a reference mirror, blocking the reference beam to obtain a DM response, activating a close-loop mode of DM Control Software and computing iterations until a difference between the reference wavefront and the DM response is minimized, recording a wavefront created by the DM (&#x3a6;n, DM) and the corresponding voltage vector (Vn) applied to the DM; and applying a voltage vector to the DM to thereby flatten the DM and correct for the distortion. The method is useful in an application such as for ground-to-space links at Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) wavelengths.

Characterization and training of a piezoelectric deformable mirror

A system and method for encoding an analog input signal for optical transmission, including driving a voltage controlled oscillator with an analog input signal to produce a frequency modulated electrical signal having a frequency proportional to the amplitude of the input signal, and applying the frequency modulated electrical signal to a multiple quantum well modulating retroreflector. The retroreflector receives optical energy from a laser source and modulates the optical energy with the frequency modulated signal to produce an output optical signal.

System and method for transmitting analog signals with a modulating retroreflector and hybrid amplitude and frequency modulation

A system for remote optical communications includes a base station and a remote station. The remote station includes a retroreflector, a multiple quantum well modulator (MQW), and drive circuitry that drives the MQW. A base station transmitter sends an interrogating light beam to the MQW, which modulates the light beam based on the information in the electrical signal from the drive circuitry. The retroreflector reflects the modulated light beam to the base station for detection by a receiver.

Modulating retroreflector using multiple quantum well technology

An optical communications system is disclosed for correcting in real-time the wavefront distortions of a beam from a coherent optical transmitting source. The system includes a collimating lens and beam splitter for receiving a distorted wavefront signal beam and splitting the beam into a pump beam and a weaker intensity signal beam. The system includes a detector and computer for measuring the beam distortion and specifying a compensatory wavefront. The weaker intensity signal beam is modified in a 2-D spatial light modulator according to a compensatory wavefront. A photo-refractive material is used to couple energy from the pump beam to the compensated wavefront signal beam thereby producing a corrected and intensity-enhanced communications beam.

Efficient dynamic phasefront modulation system for free-space optical

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Burke, VA, United States of America

G Charmaine Gilbreath