I-tek, Inc.

Textron Corporation

Ralph E Aldrich

Steven M Daigneault

William J Cumming

Nedo P Albertinetti

William A Simmons, Jr

Julius M Feinleib

Frank M Anthony

A laser mirror having a cooled deformable reflecting surface is disclosed. The mirror's base includes a manifold for distributing coolant toward the mirror's faceplate and for receiving coolant which has circulated through the faceplate. The faceplate is comprised of a thin, deformable sheet of material which has a polished surface for reflecting laser radiation therefrom. The facesheet is supported above the base manifold by one or more actuators which may be selectively operated to selectively deform the mirror's reflecting surface. The faceplate includes one or more enclosed, elongated spaces which transverse substantially the entire width of the faceplate and through which coolant may be circulated to cool the faceplate. Coolant conducting members located around the periphery of the faceplate carry coolant between the faceplate and the base manifold to remove heat absorbed by the faceplate from the laser signal impinging on the mirror's reflecting surface.

Laser mirror having a cooled, deformable surface

A cooled deformable mirror having a continuous mirror surface and a method for cooling a deformable mirror having a continuous mirror surface are disclosed. In the preferred embodiments, one or more enclosed spaces within the mirror's faceplate are supplied with coolant through one or more actuators used to deform the mirror surface and one or more other of the actuators are used to remove coolant from the mirror faceplate. The deformable mirror includes a base manifold which receives coolant from an external source and distributes the coolant to selected ones of the actuators for distribution within the faceplate. Coolant removed from the faceplate by others of the actuators is returned to the base manifold from which it is returned to the external source. Another preferred embodiment further includes a coolant distribution manifold in the faceplate to facilitate the distribution of coolant within the faceplate after the coolant has been delivered to the faceplate by the apertures in one or more actuators. In the preferred embodiments, the coolant is also circulated through spaces within the base manifold to remove heat from the base.

Cooled deformable mirror

Groups of electromechanical actuators affixed to a movable mirror are coupled to the mirror along radial lines extending from the central portion thereof. The actuators in each of such groups have variable sensitivity of mechanical response per volt applied, such sensitivity increasing for each actuator which is positioned further and further away from the central portion, and thus for any desired motion, only one control voltage is required to drive all actuators in a particular group. Variable sensitivity is preferably attained by constructing all actuators to have the same number of piezo-electric layers and connecting more and more electrodes associated with the layers to the single control voltage for actuators positioned further and further away from the central portion of the optical element.

Tip-tilt mirror actuation system having simplified driver circuitry

A long period buried optical grating is fabricated by polishing a number of single crystal silicon wafers to identical thicknesses and flat figure, applying a light reflective metallic coating to the wafers, thereafter bonding the wafers together in a stack, and thereafter lapping the resulting stack of bonded layers at an acute angle with respect to the major planar surfaces of the wafers to form the buried grating, such grating having optically flat reflective sawtoothed elements. The grating period may be readily controlled by changing the acute angle and/or the thickness of the silicon wafers.

Method of fabricating long period optical grating

An array of electromechanical actuators are positioned beneath a movable mirror and have movable contacts which are affixed to the upper surface of a resistive mat having a single voltage gradient applied across the mat to control the tilting of the mirror. The adjustability of the contact points of each actuator enables the use of actuators which have a substantially varying sensitivity with respect to the application of particular voltages.

Tip-tilt mirror actuation system employing a single control voltage

A wavefront modulator includes a multiple layer unitary block of a piezoelectric medium having a mirror bonded to the uppermost surface of the block. First and second sets of electrodes are formed within the block at each of a plurality of discrete electrically-addressable locations, such that the electrodes of the first set are positioned at one side of each of the layers, and the electrodes of the second set are positioned at opposite sides of each of the layers in order to increase the sensitivity of response of the modulator to in turn decrease the requisite driving or control voltages. The first and second sets of electrodes are offset with respect to each other to provide for ease of electrical access to each electrode of each set.

Multiple layer piezoelectric wavefront modulator

A piezoelectric wavefront modulator employs a plurality of widely-separated posts, which are formed upon the upper portion of a monolithic piezoelectric medium and are affixed to the lower portion of a flexible mirror. The posts extend from the top surface of the piezoelectric medium a sufficient distance, so that the mirror floats. The posts are surrounded by moats formed within the medium, which are configured to produce a highly sensitive device, wherein the post mirror actuators are substantially electromechanically isolated from each other, but not from the piezoelectric material adjacent the moat.

Piezoelectric wavefront modulator

Liquid crystal mixtures are disclosed which contain 30-60% of a Schiff's base nematic liquid crystal compound, 25-65% of a second nematic liquid crystal compound selected from the classes of azoxy, ester and biphenyl, and 5-15% of a triphenyl compound to raise the isotropic transition temperature. This combination results in liquid crystal compositions having unexpectedly wide nematic temperature ranges.

Mixtures of nematic liquid crystal materials

Apparatus for maintaining image definition and intensity in optical image processing operations. The apparatus comprises an improved photosensitive device responsive to an applied radiation image pattern for establishing internal electric fields each of which are representative of the intensity of different portions of the applied pattern. Associated with the photosensitive device are a plurality of transparent, conductive targets or conductors aligned to receive the different portions of the applied radiation pattern and to establish discrete internal fields in the device which are uniform over the area of each target notwithstanding any non-uniformities that might exist in the intensity distribution of any of the portions of the applied pattern. The apparatus is especially suitable for use in conjunction with parallel optical digital processing systems in which digital data is represented by an array of radiation image bits of differing intensity and is directed through an optical circuit to be processed in a desired manner.

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Acton, MA, United States of America

Ralph E Aldrich