Plasma reflectors for electronic beam steering in radar systems

The author describes investigations into methods of generating a planar plasma for use as a reflector for radar waves. The use of the plasma reflector could allow electronic beam steering at frequencies above what is generally viable for phased arrays. Three aspects of the planar plasma production are investigated: localization of the plasma, main plasma production, and long-term viability of the system. Possible applications include ship-based antennas at X-band, airborne antennas at 94 GHz, and space-based antennas at 60 GHz. The author discusses system considerations for the three potential radar configurations. Results and potential small-scale experiments to test various aspects of the concept are discussed     

Coupled relaxation oscillators for frequency multiplication

Relaxation oscillators with microbridges as hysteretic elements are investigated in a frequency range of up to 1 GHz. The signal form of the voltage pulses and the resulting frequency versus bias current dependence are calculated, as well as the frequency spectrum of the harmonics. To demonstrate the possibility of a frequency multiplication, several relaxation oscillators are coupled in a serial or ring configuration. Superconducting delay lines are used to synchronize the oscillators to each other with the proper phase shift. As our measurements show, a frequency multiplication, or at least an enhancement in the power of the desired harmonic is possible in this way.     

Optically controlled terahertz beam steering and imaging

We propose a spatial modulator for terahertz waves based on light induced electron plasma in photo-active semiconductors. A two-dimensional array of computer controlled light is used to create free carries in bulk silicon, which results in a spatial modulation of the transmission at terahertz frequencies. This method not only exhibits a remarkable modulation depth over a broad frequency range but also allows for an optically controlled beam steering of terahertz waves by inducing virtual grating structures. In addition, we analyze the possibility of all-optically controlled terahertz imaging.     

Self-deflection and all-optical beam steering in CdZnTe

We report on the experimental observation of very large self-deflection of optical beams, along with all-optical steering, and electro-optic beam deflection. We observe as many as 27 resolvable spots of deflection at 1-W/cm2 intensity. These deflections arise from enhanced photorefractive effects in CdZnTe:V, giving rise to optically induced index changes in excess of 0.08, which is to our knowledge the strongest nonlinearity ever reported for any bulk semiconductor.     

Electrical beam steering with metal-anisotropic-metal structure

In this numerical study, we present and demonstrate a compact, electrical plasmonic beam-steering device composed of anisotropic material. The splitting angle can be modulated by the external electric or magnetic field. The physical principle of this phenomenon is evaluated from the phase of surface plasmon polaritons and Fabry-Perot (F-P) resonance in slits. Our numerical simulations with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique reveals that wide-angle (±27°) beam steering can be achieved. Moreover, the efficiency increases when increasing the steering angle. A special characteristic of the presented structure gives an opportunity to be used as an efficient element in a high integrated optical device for miniaturization and tuning purposes.     

High-performance millimeter-scale silicon grating emitters for beam steering applications

A 2-mm-long silicon-on-insulator grating emitter with a narrow angular full width at half-maximum(FWHM) and a high sideband suppression ratio(SSR) is proposed and designed. It consists of a Si₃N₄/Si grating with an approximate Gaussian emission profile along the grating length, which aims to reduce the sidelobe intensity of the scanning light in the far-field, thereby improving the resolution of the longitudinal steering resolution of the light detection and ranging(lidar)....     

High-resolution beam steering using microlens arrays

Imaging or beam-steering systems employing a periodic array of microlenses or micromirrors suffer from diffraction problems resulting from the destructive interference of the beam segments produced by the array. Simple formulas are derived for beam steering with segmented apertures that do not suffer from diffraction problems because of the introduction of a moving linear phase shifter such as a prescan lens before the periodic structure. The technique substantially increases the resolution of imaging systems that employ microlens arrays or micromirror arrays. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental results demonstrating the high-resolution imaging concept using microlens arrays are presented.     

Monolithic QW laser beam steering and wavelength tunability

We demonstrate a monolithic tunable laser on a QW structure by integrating an optical beam steering section with an area-selectively intermixed QW gain section. Wavelength switching is achieved by steering the laser beam over an optical gain medium that consists of two laterally adjacent quantum well regions selectively intermixed to varying extents. The device output had a total of 10 nm wavelength tuning that was controlled by injecting separate electrical current values to each of the steering contacts and the amplifier contact.     

Transmissive beam steering through electrowetting microprism arrays

Reported is a numerical calculation of near-field and far-field intensities for two electrowetting microprism designs. This includes an investigation of one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and bi-prism pixellated arrays. The diffraction efficiency of an incident Gaussian beam is investigated. Far-field deflection angles are extended to more than 10°. For the phased arrays the diffraction angles are discrete and the angles between the diffraction peaks can be covered by applying a tilted phase to the input field.     

Wideband plasmonic beam steering in metal gratings

We demonstrate controllable light deflection in thick metal gratings with periodic subwavelength slits filled with an active material. Under specific illumination conditions, the grating becomes nearly transparent and acts as a uniform optical phased-array antenna where the phase of the radiating elements is controlled by modifying the index of refraction of the material that fills each slit. The beam-steering operational regime occurs in a wide wavelength band, and it is relatively insensitive to the input angle.     

Diode laser frequency stabilisation for water-vapour differential absorption sensing

We describe a low-power continuous-wave laser system for water-vapour sensing applications in the 935-nm region. The system is based on extended-cavity diode lasers and distributed-feedback lasers and delivers four single-mode frequency-stabilised optical signals. Three lasers are locked to three water-vapour absorption lines of different strengths, whereas the fourth lies outside any absorption line. On-line stabilisation is performed by wavelength-modulation spectroscopy using compact water-vapour reference cells. An offset-locking technique implemented around an electrical filter is applied for the stabilisation of the off-line slave laser to an on-line master laser at a frequency detuning of 18.8 GHz. Stabilities in the order of 15 MHz over one day were observed for the strongest lines, at the detection limit of the measurement instrumentation. The developed techniques and schemes can be applied to other wavelength ranges and molecular species. Differential absorption lidar instrumentation can in particular benefit from such a system when the stabilised lasers serve as injection seeders to pulsed power oscillators. PACS 42.62.Fi; 42.72.-g; 42.68.Wt     

Ultra-thin two-dimensional transmissive anisotropic metasurfaces for polarization filter and beam steering application

We propose an anisotropic planar transmitting metasurface, which has the ability to manipulate orthogonally-polarized electromagnetic waves in the reflection and refraction modes respectively. The metasurface is composed of four layered rectangular patches spaced by three layered dielectric isolators each with a thickness of 0.15λ0 at 15 GHz. By tailoring the sizes of the patches, the metasurface functions as a band-stop filter for the y-polarzied wave and a band-pass filter for the x-polarized wave operating from 14 GHz to 16 GHz. Moreover the phases of the transmitting x-polarized wave can be modulated at about 15 GHz, which contributes to beam steering according to the general refraction law. Experimental results are in good accordance with the simulated ones, in which the reflection efficiency is almost 100% while the transmission efficiency of the x-polarized wave reaches 80% at 15 GHz. Besides, the transmitted x-polarized wave is effectively manipulated from 14 GHz to 16 GHz.     

相控阵天线主控系统中实时数据交互

波束控制系统是高功率相控阵天线的神经中枢,负责天线阵面中所有单元相位的精确控制和状态监测任务。为实现天线阵面的快速、精确波束转换,采用分布式拓扑结构和嵌入式实时操作系统,设计了两级分布式波束控制方案,开发了基于VxWorks的相控阵天线主控系统。通过UDP协议实现主控系统与其他系统的多节点网络通讯;针对高速、实时通讯需求,利用VxWorks多任务编程接口,设计了一种基于双缓冲队列的Socket通讯方法;为使通讯被各方正确解析,制定了自定义的应用层协议。基于VxWorks的相控阵天线主控系统的开发应用,验证了方案的可行性以及控制软件的可靠性和稳定性。     

阵列波导激光相控阵光束偏转特性研究

研究了阵列波导激光相控阵的光束偏转特性,计算出光学相控阵的偏转角度与阵列波导相关参量之间的关系,绘制出光束偏转角与相关参量间的关系曲线。分析了阵列波导激光相控阵的三个性能指标:扫描范围、分辨率及能量效率,研究各阵列波导参数对于此三项指标的影响,据此分析出最优化的参数设计。根据阵列波导激光相控阵原理设计了仿真实验界面,自定义参数模拟光束的偏转效果。     

Numerical analysis of coherent combination for fiber lasers and application to beam steering

A coherent combination model of fiber lasers has been established. The relative beam quality factor has been introduced and studied as a proper beam quality factor for the combined coherent beam. The disturbance of the phase shift, polarization degradation, distribution characteristic, the wave-front aberration and the tilt error has been numerically studied to investigate their effects on the beam quality. This model has been also used to analyze the control of beam steering. The results have shown that the impact of the phase shift on the combination is more serious than that caused by polarization degradation, and the coherence degradation caused by the phase grating is more severe than that caused by the phase shifter.     

Oblique incidence effect on steering efficiency of liquid crystal polarization gratings used for optical phased array beam steering amplification

A liquid crystal polarization grating (LCPG) is proposed that amplifies the steering angle of a liquid crystal optical phased array for non-mechanical beam steering, taking advantage of its high steering efficiency under normal incidence. However, oblique incidence may play an important role in the overall steering efficiency. The effect of oblique incidence on steering efficiency of a LCPG was analyzed by numerically solving the extended Jones matrix and considering propagation crosstalk. The results indicate that the outgoing laser beam is amplitude-modulated under the effect of oblique incidence and behaves as a sinusoidal-modulated amplitude grating, which diffracts certain energies to non-blazed orders. Over-oblique incidence may even eliminate the steering effect of the incident beam. The modulation depth of the induced amplitude grating was found to be proportional to the product of sinusoidal value of oblique incidence angle and the LC layer thickness, and inversely proportional to the periodic pitch length of the LCPG. Both in-plane incidence and out-of-plane incidence behave similarly to influence the steering efficiency. Finally, the overall steering efficiency for cascaded LCPGs was analyzed and a difference of up to 11 % steering efficiency can be induced between different LCPG configurations, even without considering the over-oblique incidence effect. Both the modulation depth and final steering efficiency can be optimized by varying the LC birefringence and layer thickness.     

离子推力器束流引出状态对栅极刻蚀的影响

为了研究30 cm离子推力器束流引出状态对栅极刻蚀的影响,建立了束流引出模型,并采用PIC-MCC方法对CEX离子造成的栅极腐蚀速率进行了计算,最后将计算结果与1500 h寿命试验结果进行比对分析。结果显示：束流正常聚焦时,在3 kW和5 kW两种工作模式下,加速栅和减速栅的质量刻蚀速率分别为(1.11～1.72)×10⁻¹⁵ kg/s及(1.22～1.26)×10⁻¹⁷ kg/s。在5 kW工况下,当屏栅上游等离子体密度达到4.03×10¹⁷ m⁻³时,束流出现欠聚焦现象,此时加速栅和减速栅的最大离子刻蚀速率分别为4.33×10⁻¹⁵ kg/s和4.02×10⁻¹⁵ kg/s;在3 kW工况下,当屏栅上游等离子体密度达到0.22×10¹⁷ m⁻³时,束流出现过聚焦现象,此时加速栅和减速栅的最大离子刻蚀速率分别为3.24×10⁻¹⁵ kg/s和5.01×10⁻¹⁵ kg/s。寿命试验结果表明,加速栅孔质量刻蚀速率的计算值与试验值比对误差较小,而由于束流离子对减速栅孔的直接轰击,导致减速栅孔刻蚀速率的计算值和试验值差异极大。经研究认为,对屏栅小孔采用变孔径设计,是降低当束流处于欠聚焦或过聚焦状态下,CEX离子造成加速栅孔和减速栅孔刻蚀速率,并提升推力器工作寿命的有效措施。     

抑制光束抖动的压电倾斜镜高带宽控制

提出了一种抑制光束平台抖动和压电倾斜镜机械谐振的方法从而提高系统校正带宽和跟瞄精度.通过分析双二阶滤波器参数对频率特性的影响,提出了一种双二阶滤波器的设计方法,并把这种设计方法结合比例积分(PI)控制算法用于抑制光束平台抖动和压电倾斜镜机械谐振.最后,对经典PI控制算法和增加了双二阶滤波器的PI控制算法进行了实验比较,在相同的条件下,增加了双二阶滤波器的PI控制带宽比经典PI控制带宽提高了近1倍,对平台抖动控制精度提高了5倍以上.实验结果表明:增加了双二阶滤波器的PI控制算法对抑制光束平台抖动和压电倾斜镜机械谐振简单有效,可以提高系统校正带宽和跟瞄精度.