The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 07, 1989
Filed:
Oct. 28, 1985
Applicant:
Inventor:
John C Brock, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Assignee:
TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01J / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
250374 ; 2503385 ; 250340 ; 2503361 ;
Abstract
An optical filter and detector, and a related method for its operation, in which signal photons are admitted into a detector cell and selectively excite atoms or molecules of a vapor to a selected metastable state. An illuminating laser then photoionizes a large proportion of the excited atoms or molecules, and the resulting free electrons are collected as a measure of the number of incident signal photons. The initial excitation step to a metastable state is highly sensitive to the wavelength of the signal photons and therefore acts as a narrowband filter.