A 300 THz tabletop radar range system with sub-micron distance accuracy

Abstract

We are presenting a compact radar range system with a scale factor of 105. Replacing the radio frequency (RF) by optical wavelength (300 THz), the system easily fit on a tabletop. We used interferometric time-of-flight to reproduce radar ranging measurements. Sub-micron range accuracy was achieved with a 100 fs laser pulse, which correspond to 3 cm for a s-band (3 GHz) radar. We demonstrated the system potential on a simple target, and compared the results with radio frequency measurement using a vector network analyzer. We also present measurement with a more realistic model, a 3D printed reproduction of the USS Arizona battleship, for which a 3D model is extracted from the ranging data. Together with our previous demonstration of radar cross section measurement with a similar system, this report further validates our proposal to use optics to simulate radar properties of complex radio frequency systems.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 27, 2018
Source ID
10.1038/s41598-018-32846-9

Entities

People

  • Hao Xin
  • Mark Neifeld
  • Mingguang Tuo
  • N. Peyghambarian
  • Pierre-Alexandre Blanche

Organizations

  • National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Office of Naval Research Global

Tags

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy