EFFECT OF OPTICAL PATH IMPERFECTIONS ON FABRY-PEROT MODULATOR PERFORMANCE.
Abstract
Under a previous contract, a theoretical investigation was conducted on the effects of variation in optical pathlength upon the performance of a Fabry-Perot type wideband modulator. The variations consisted of statistical distributions within or across the aperture, and two probability distributions of the variable pathlength were studied: a rectangular and a Gaussian. The objective of the present work was to provide direct experimental verification of the theoretical results of the probability study as well as to characterize and access the present performance of the modulator in order to provide guidance for future work. It is shown that the plane-parallel Fabry-Perot type of modulator will approach ideal theoretical performance only for extremely small apertures of the order of 0.045 inch or less and that this result is in accordance with the theoretically predicted performance. It is further shown that the modulator performance depends critically upon the frequency stability and bandwidth of the source and that frequency drifts, f sub o, greater than a few megacycles will cause large fluctuations in the average transmission. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0603004
Entities
People
- Vincent Delpiano Jr.