TIME REVERSED PHOTONIC BEAMFORMING OF ARBITRARY WAVEFORM LADAR ARRAYS

摘要

Herein is described a novel approach of performing adaptive photonic beam forming of an array of optical fibers with the expressed purpose of performing laser ranging. The beam forming technique leverages the concepts of time reversal, previously implemented in the sonar community, and wherein photonic implementation has recently been described for use by beamforming of ultra-wideband radar arrays. Photonic beam forming is also capable of combining the optical output of several fiber lasers into a coherent source, exactly phase matched on a pre-determined target. By implementing electro-optically modulated pulses from frequency chirped femtosecond-scale laser pulses, ladar waveforms can be generated with arbitrary spectral and temporal characteristics within the limitations of the wide-band system. Also described is a means of generating angle/angle/range measurements of illuminated targets.