A Mechanical Light Chopper Based on a Hard Disk Drive for Systems of Laser Sounding of the Atmosphere

摘要

An easily manufactured high-speed mechanical chopper based on a Maxtor D740X-6L hard disk drive with a rotation speed of 7200 rpm is described. It is shown experimentally and theoretically that the switching time of a light beam with a diameter of 0.8 mm is ～20μs. The described chopper can be used in systems of laser sounding of the atmosphere for protection of photodetectors against a high-power backscattered signal from a near zone of the sounding line, as well as in other problems where fast mechanical switching of a light beam is required.