Speckle Free, Low Coherency, High Brightness, and High Pulse Speed Infrared Collimated Light Sources for Mid-IR Target Designator and Hyperspectral Imaging

Abstract

The indium phosphide-based SLED is an ideal light source for eye-safe target designation and imaging at 1550 nm spectral region. Its wide spectral width ensures low coherency, which is critical for speckle free imaging. A high brightness and well-collimated output beam allow for projection of the illumination across long distances. In this project, a high brightness SLED chip that exceeds 200 mW in peak optical power output and >20 nm of spectral bandwidth at 1550 nm wavelength has been designed, developed and demonstrated. This optical power level is the highest value ever achieved, exhibiting more than 2 times improvement over baseline SLED chips operating in the same wavelength range. The SLED chip is packaged into a compact 7-pin TO-8 platform with built-in collimating aspherical lens, and the resultant transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) achieved a very low beam divergence of 1 mrad. Additionally, an optical pulse stream of IOns pulse width, 0.1% duty ratio and rise and fall times of 1 ns has been demonstrated, allowing for high speed pulsed illumination applications.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 31, 2007
Accession Number
ADA483027

Entities

People

  • Yee-loy Lam

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Divers
  • Fabrication
  • Hyperspectral Imagery
  • Laser Diodes
  • Light Sources
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Optical Phenomena
  • Optical Properties
  • Optics
  • Power Levels
  • Scattering
  • Semiconductors
  • Target Designators
  • Test And Evaluation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.