Lockheed Martin Corporation

Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

Loral Electro-optical Systems Inc.

Roger C Farmer

A semiconductor laser produces infrared radiation suitable for jamming a heat seeking missile, wherein a wavelength of the radiation is in a range of 2-5 microns, and the laser has a semiconductor lasing medium of PbSePbSnSe or GaInAsSb. These materials can be doped to provide a p/n junction, wherein the laser is excitable by electric current passing through the p/n junction. The third one of these materials can be constructed also as a uniform undoped slab which is excitable optically. Cooling of the lasing medium is accomplished by use of a lithium heat sink thermally coupled to the lasing medium by a diamond thermal diffuser which conducts heat from the relatively small region of the laser to spread out the thermal energy along a relatively large surface of the heat sink. Modulation circuitry is connected to the excitation apparatus to provide a pulse train of the radiation.

Compact infrared countermeasure emitter

A semiconductor laser produces infrared radiation suitable for jamming a heat seeking missile, wherein a wavelength of the radiation is in an infrared range of 2-5 microns, and the laser has a semiconductor laser medium. Cooling of the lasing medium is accomplished by use of a lithium heat sink thermally coupled to the lasing medium by a diamond thermal diffuser which conducts heat from the relatively small region of the laser to spread out the thermal energy along a relatively large surface of the heat sink. The semiconductor laser and the cooling equipment is mounted within a gimbal mounting which supports also an infrared receiving channel with associated optics for illumination and detection a missile. The common gimbal mounting is accomplished by use of a central rigid base plate which supports the transmitter and the receiver on opposite sides of the plate. The rigid base plate serves as an optical bench for insuring precise optical measurements, as well as for optical isolation of the transmission channel and reception channels.

Compact scanning infrared countermeasure emitter

Cooling apparatus has a cryogenic cooler which is connected thermally by a heat transfer system to a hot object to be cooled, wherein the heat transfer system is constructed of a cold finger, a heat sink or energy control module, and a thermal diffuser. The cold finger thermally connects the heat sink to the cooler, and the diffuser thermally connects the hot object to the heat sink. The heat sink is formed of a thermally conductive material, preferably lithium which has a high energy storage capacity, and which is enclosed within a housing of thermally conductive material to prevent interaction of the lithium chemically with the external environment. The diffuser is fabricated of solid industrial diamond which has great thermal diffusivity at cryogenic temperatures to distribute, virtually instantaneously, and over a wide area of the heat sink much larger than the hot object, the energy dissipated within the hot object. In the case wherein the hot object is a semiconductor laser, the material of the lasing medium is contiguous the diffuser, the diffuser extending well beyond the semiconductor material to provide a wide and highly conductive thermal path from the laser to the heat sink. A vacuum-tight housing, having one or more windows transparent to radiation, encloses the laser, the heat sink, and the cold finger to provide thermal insulation and prevent contamination of the laser from an external environment.

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Arcadia, CA, United States of America

Roger C Farmer