Optical Processors Using Holographic Optical Elements.

摘要

This report describes an investigation of holographic optical elements for use in optical data processors. Thin, lightweight, potentially inexpensive, and allowing compact folded light paths, holographic optics offers significant advantages in applications such as optical processors for terminal guidance. Holographic lenses for a matched-filter optical processor and a Fourier spectrum processor were designed and analyzed. Holographic lenses were fabricated and assembled into optical processors; and the performance of the processors was measured and compared to the analysis. Both the analytical and the experimental results of this research suggest that holographic optics can perform well as the Fourier transforming lenses in optical processors, making them an attractive alternative to conventional optics for those optical processing applications that can benefit from the unique properties of holographic optics. A useful quality criterion that was developed for analyzing matched filter optical processors is the standard deviation phase error criterion. (Author)