Michigan Aerospace Corporation

Scott K Lindemann

Paul Byron Hays

David Michael Zuk

David Keith Johnson

The invention is directed to a device and method for conducting measurement of a Doppler shift caused by molecular and aerosol movement while simultaneously providing measurement of temperature using LIDAR. The device incorporates a light source; and a Fabry-Perot etalon having a resonant cavity formed with two plane parallel reflecting surfaces, wherein the light source is positioned relative to the a Fabry-Perot etalon such that light is injected into a plane parallel resonant cavity of the Fabry-Perot etalon at an angle of incidence other than normal to the reflecting surfaces. The Fabry-Perot etalon may be formed with each of the parallel reflecting surfaces having different reflectivities. The light source may be positioned to direct the light to bypass a first reflective surface of the plane parallel resonator cavity, and/or implemented using a divergent light source. In addition, the Fabry-Perot etalon may be formed to include an aperture in at least one mirror surface or an edge portion in at least one mirror surface through which the light is directed into the resonant cavity. The device may also incorporate a detector for detecting a fringe pattern outputted by the Fabry-Perot etalon.

System and method for an edge injection etalon

A system for scanning light to define a range gated signal includes a pulsed coherent light source that directs light into the atmosphere, a light gathering instrument that receives the light modified by atmospheric backscatter and transfers the light onto an image plane, a scanner that scans collimated light from the image plane to form a range gated signal from the light modified by atmospheric backscatter, a control circuit that coordinates timing of a scan rate of the scanner and a pulse rate of the pulsed coherent light source so that the range gated signal is formed according to a desired range gate, an optical device onto which an image of the range gated signal is scanned, and an interferometer to which the image of the range gated signal is directed by the optical device. The interferometer is configured to modify the image according to a desired analysis.

System and method for scan range gating

A fringe pattern from an interferometer is imaged onto a digital micromirror device containing an array of micromirrors in an associated pattern of pixel mirror rotational states that provide for sampling the circular fringe pattern in cooperation with one or more associated photodetectors, so as to provide for generate a corresponding set of associated complementary signals. A plurality of different sets of associated complementary signals generated for a corresponding plurality of mutually independent associated patterns of pixel mirror rotational states are used to determine at least one metric associated with the circular fringe pattern.

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Scott K Lindemann