Covert laser remote sensing and vibrometry

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM AND RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/998,688 entitled “Space-born non-cooperative covert remote hearing and vibrometry” and filed Oct. 12, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as part of the specification of this application.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

The invention described herein was made in the performance of work under a NASA contract, and is subject to the provisions of Public Law 96-517 (35 USC 202) in which the Contractor has elected to retain title.

BACKGROUND

This application relates to optical sensors including optical vibrometry measurements.

Laser vibrometry measurements use two coherent laser beams from a single laser: one as a probe beam and another as a reference beam. The probe beam is directed to a target and gets reflected back to optically interfere with the reference beam to produce an interference signal. This interference signal is detected to extract the vibration information of the target which indices a Doppler shift in the reflected probe light.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a laser vibrometry system for remote sensing from an airborne laser system.

FIG. 2 shows one example of a laser sensing system.

FIG. 3 shows one example of the narrow optical filter module 4 for the system in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows the operation of the optical filter 6 for optical demodulation.

FIG. 5 shows signal processing in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The system in this document can be used to provide an acousto-photonic system for remote detection and analysis as well as for covert recognition of distant non-cooperative objects (targets of tactical and/or strategic importance). For example, the targets can belong to particular types of mechanical tooling operating under the roof of a factory or deep underground. The acousto-photonic system can be used for remote recognition of a fake construction such as a garage or a factory, remote recognition of fake weaponry placed on the battlefield and identification of fake launched warheads.

FIG. 1 shows one example of such a system where the laser sensing module 100 sends a single laser probe beam 110 to a target 101 and collects returned light 120 from the target. The returned light includes the backscattered or reflected probe light from the laser 100 and background light.

Our system has two distinct features:

a) The target recognition can be covert. The power of the optical carrier will always be kept below the natural illumination background to be completely unrecognizable by modern detectors. Our advanced filtering at selected optical wavelength will remove all the ambient illumination which would saturate optical detector of the vibrometer. Additional stage of the detection will include lock-in amplification of the received signal which will increase the signal level at least by 30 dB.

b) Our system will allow recognition of very remote targets. The receiving part of the system will require only very moderate power and it will detect the intensity of the returned light, not the square of it as usually. Estimations show that 1000 mile recognition distance will be feasible with 200 mW optical source. This will allow usage of our systems in space for listening the ground or vibrations of other spacecrafts.

The operational principle of the acousto-photonic system is based on laser vibrometry. Conventional remote optical vibrometry suffers from low signal-to-noise ratio resulting from unavailability of narrowband optical filters suitable for cutting out the noise from the optical signal returned from a vibrating target. We propose to develop a system that substantially increasing signal-to-noise ratio for an optical vibrometer by providing sub-kilohertz notch pre-filtering in optical domain with subsequent phase-sensitive optical signal detection (FIG. 2).

Let us discuss the system more specifically. Laser beam of moderate power illuminates the target. Reflected light (“sparkle”) is received by optical antenna. Doppler shift is compensated by laser frequency detuning. The received signal is refined by a kilohertz bandpass optical filter. Output of the filter is amplified, demodulated, and sent to an acoustical spectrum analyzer and simultaneously to a loudspeaker.

Extremely narrowband optical filtering with amplification allows reducing optical power down and hiding it within regular target's night or day illumination. To ensure the sparkle is not visible when level of ambient illumination is reducing, say at dusk, the feedback circuit will adjust the emitting power constantly keeping it substantially below the illumination. This way overall power of sparkle will be at least 50 dB below natural illumination and this way undetectable by regular observer.

The last stage of the hearing setup provides with covertness even when technically advanced counter-reconnaissance systems are present. The sparkle still can be detected if the counter-system has real-time information about exact current frequency of the remote-hearing laser. In this case the covertness is compromised since opponent directly detects the sparkle. This stage allows reducing power 20 dB below the noise within acoustic band using phase sensitive technique.

To intercept the process of remote hearing at this point the opponent has to obtain real-time optical frequency of the remote-hearing laser and a current phase of the phase sensitive receiver. This does not seem realistic.

The narrowband filtering is possible because of availability of ultra-high Q crystalline whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators. Recently we have developed a novel approach for fabrication of ultra-high Q crystalline WGM microresonators and demonstrated high contrast optical modes characterized with a kilohertz bandwidth (Q>1011) at room temperature. Theoretical simulations show that the Q-factor could be even higher if appropriate crystalline materials are chosen. The resonators are small in size and suitable for integration with other optical elements. We have also developed a computerized fabrication technique for the crystalline microresonators. The technique is based on a special diamond turning apparatus. The quality of the surface of the resonators produced with this technique is characterized by less than 0.2 nm surface roughness. The quality factor of the microresonators exceeds 107.

An optical filter can be fabricated from CaF2 or MgF2. The geometry of the resonator will be engineered in a way to obtain a so-called “single-mode” optical resonator. Such geometry significantly improves spectral resolution as well as signal-to-noise ratio. The filter will improve sensitivity of the remote hearing for a wide range of the optical frequencies scaling from 200 to 400 THz. One example of such a filer is a whispering gallery mode resonator filter.

Proposed setup will be of great interest because of its unique ability to recognize actual sound and vibration of the extremely remote targets. Deployed system will allow recognition of, for example, the particular type of U238/U235 inertial separators working at WDM facilities by vibrational spectra of the facility itself. On the battlefield it would allow recognition of false tanks on the ground or false jetfighters on the airstrip.

Proposed system will result in remote covert recognition since the weak laser carrier will be safely hidden in wideband stray light. The target under recognition will not be able to detect this process since at present time there are no methods to extract such a weak narrowband optical signal from noisy background but our proposed filtering process.

Remote optical hearing and vibrometry has been widely used, e.g. in industry, for detection of defects within operating mechanisms or recognition of their operational status. There exists a significant technical difficulty, though, in optical recognition of a weak vibration introducing modulation sidebands in the vicinity of the optical carrier. It is difficult to separate the signal from the strong ambient optical noise even using heterodyne detection scheme. We propose a novel as well as a feasible solution of the problem that will improve sensitivity of existing remote hearing devices by several orders of magnitude.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the laser sensor module 100 in FIG. 1. Laser 1 connected to antenna 2 illuminates the target. Image of the sparkle is received with antenna 3, filtered 4, amplified 5, demodulated 6 and finally detected with optical detector 7. Lock-in amplifier 8 modulates the laser's carrier providing with phase sensitive measurements. Result of remote hearing is displayed with conventional low-frequency spectrum analyzer 9. Feedback circuit 10 control laser's average power. IN operation, this system projects a single laser beam that is modulated to the target and detects the returned probe beam without using a second reference beam. The demodulation at the second optical filter in FIG. 4 performs the optical filtering and demodulation to extract the vibration signal.

FIG. 2 shows one example of a laser sensing system.

FIG. 3 shows one example of the narrow optical filter module 4 for the system in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows the operation of the optical filter 6 for optical demodulation.

FIG. 5 shows signal processing in FIG. 2.

While this specification contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of an invention or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments of the invention. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or a variation of a subcombination.

Only a few implementations are disclosed. However, it is understood that variations, enhancements and other implementations can be made based on what is described and illustrated in this patent application.