US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Robert Clinton Hoffman

Timothy Pritchett

Shizhuo Yin

An electro-optic modulator comprising at least one nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal; first and second conductors operatively connected to the nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal adapted to be connected to a voltage source to modulate light passing there through; whereby light is modulated by passing through the nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal. A method for modulating light comprising providing at least one at least one nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal; providing first and second conductors operatively connected to the nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal adapted to be connected to a voltage source to modulate light passing there through; providing an interrogating light beam striking at least one nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal; modulating light passing through the nanodisordered potassium tantalate niobate crystal; and receiving a modulated light beam.

High-speed wide field-of-view electro-optic system and method

An optical switching system comprising an embodiment with a high pass filter operable to eliminate a portion of frequencies present in an image and an optical device operative to receive the spectrally modified image from the high pass filter, alternatively amplify the spectrally modified image, and propagate at least those frequency components in the spectrally modified image exhibiting a frequency less than an absorption frequency of the optical switching device when the optical switching device is active. Alternatively, the optical switching system may transmit an image only when the system is active. The optical switching system may, for example, comprise superluminescent light emitting diodes which may be, for example, formed in the shape of an inverted truncated prism. For human viewing purposes, the operative transmission ranges may closely coincide with the maximum sensitivity of the photopic response of the corresponding red, blue and green cones in human eyes.

Active optical limiting semiconductor device and method with active region transparent to light becoming opaque when not biased

A mirror having a first substrate and a reflective film formed on the first substrate, the reflective film made of mercury and at least one metal, wherein the mirror is operative such that light incident upon the first substrate and having an intensity that falls below a fluence threshold is reflected by the reflective film, and light incident upon the first substrate and having an intensity that exceeds the fluence threshold passes through the reflective film.

Mirrors and methods of making same

A large-aperture direct-view high-speed electro-optic shutter includes an electro-optic polymer material constructed to form a Pockels cell and an integrated photoconducting semiconductor switch. A chromophore-doped polymer material or chromophore copolymer, wherein the chromophore is oriented within the polymer material, exhibits a linear electro-optic effect when an electric field is applied to the device. In one embodiment, the polymer host material comprises one or more of a polycarbonate, amorphous polycarbonate, or polymethylmethacrylate polymer hosts. The optically active chromophore comprising one or more coumarin and coumarin derivatives, stilbene or tolane derivatives is incorporated within the polymer host, forming a guest-host polymer. In another embodiment, the chromophore is chemically bonded to the monomer that forms the polymer, resulting in an optically active copolymer. The electro-optic shutter device is then activated by incident light through the photoconducting semiconductor switch, rendering the Pockels cell to have an optical density of at least 3.0.

Large aperture polymer electro-optic shutter device and method of manufacturing same

Laser systems and related methods are provided. In this regard, a representative laser system includes: a laser diode array that generates light; a first crystal having a cavity; an optical element operative to focus the generated light onto the first crystal such that the light generates a high-power circulating beam within the cavity; a second crystal positioned with respect to the first crystal such that the frequency of the high-power circulating beam is doubled; and a first coating applied to the first crystal and second coating applied to the second crystal, the first coating and the second coating being operative to cause at least a portion of the beam to be emitted within a particular wavelength range of the generated light.

Wavelength selectable laser systems and related methods

A method for emitting laser radiation includes: emitting first laser radiation using a first laser, wherein said first laser is a laser diode; receiving the first laser radiation by a second laser comprising CdSeS(cadmium selenium sulfide, cadmium selenium, or cadmium sulfide), wherein x is between 0 and 1, inclusively; and responsive to receiving the first laser radiation by the second laser, emitting second laser radiation by the second laser via the CdSeS; wherein the second laser radiation has a wavelength between 487 nm and 690 nm; and wherein the wavelength of the second laser radiation is responsive to the value of x, which represents the relative concentration of selenium and/or sulfur.

Pumped semiconductor laser systems and methods

Various embodiments of an improved electro-optic shutter are disclosed. One embodiment comprises an electro-optic element, first and second polarizers, and a pair of electrodes. The electro-optic element has opposing transverse surfaces and operates as a half wave plate when a voltage Vis applied to the element. The first and second polarizers are each disposed adjacent to one transverse surface of the electro-optic element. The first and second electro-optic element have parallel transmission axes. Each electrode is disposed on one of the transverse surfaces of the electro-optic element and has an electric field which is substantially uniform over the transverse extent of the electro-optic element.

Electro-optic shutter

Current channels, blocking areas, or strips in a semiconductor laser are used to channel injected current into the antinodal region of the optical standing wave present in the optical cavity, while restricting the current flow to the nodal regions. Previous devices injected current into both the nodal and antinodal regions of the wave, which is fed by the population inversion created in the active region by the injected electrons and holes, but inversion created in the nodal regions is lost to fluorescence or supports the creation of undesirable competing longitudinal modes, causing inefficiency. Directing current to the antinodal regions where the electric field is at its maximum causes a selected longitudinal mode to preferentially oscillate regardless of where the longitudinal mode lies with respect to the gain curve. In one embodiment, exacting fabrication of the Fabry-Perot cavity correlates the current channels to antinodal regions, vis-a vis current blocking areas, strips or segmented layers.

Use of current channeling in multiple node laser systems and methods thereof

A ferroelectric material, its fabrication technique, and use as a detector aterial, in a ferroelectric detector array is disclosed. The material is an alloy of essential pure components of Pb.sub.2 (Fe, Nb)O.sub.2 and Pb.sub.2 (Fe, Ta)O.sub.2 each with respective Curie temperatures. An essentially linear relationship is made for mole fraction compositions versus Curie temperatures of each component in the alloy, between the pure mole fractions and respective Curie temperatures of the pure components. A Curie temperature for the composition of Pb.sub.2 (Fe, [Ta.sub.(1-x), Nb.sub.x ])O.sub.6 is determined, where x is the mole fraction of Pb.sub.2 (Fe,Nb)O.sub.2 and 1-x is the mole fraction of Pb.sub.2 (Fe, Ta)O.sub.2, with x having a value greater than zero and less than one.

Growing community of inventors

Woodstock, VA, United States of America

Robert Clinton Hoffman