Modeled and Measured Partially Coherent Illumination Speckle Effects from Sloped Surfaces for Tactical Tracking

The statistical properties of speckle relevant to short to medium range (tactical) active tracking involving polychromatic (partially temporally coherent) illumination are investigated. A numerical model is developed to allow rapid simulation of speckled images including the speckle contrast reduction effects of illuminator bandwidth, surface slope and roughness, and the polarization properties of both the source and the reflection. Regarding surface slope, Huntley\u27s theory for speckle contrast, which employs geometrical approximations to decrease computation time, is modified to increase accuracy by incorporation of a geometrical correction factor and better treatment of roughness and polarization. The resulting model shows excellent agreement with more exact theory over a wide range. An experiment is conducted to validate both the numerical model developed here and existing theory. A short coherence length diode laser source is reflected off of a silver-coated diffuse surface. Speckle data is gathered for 16 surface slope angles corresponding to speckle contrast between about 0.55 and 1. Taking Hu\u27s theory as truth, the measurements have -1.1% mean difference with 2.9% standard deviation, while the modified Huntley equation has 1.4% mean difference with 1.0% standard deviation. Thus, the theory is validated over the range of this experiment

Modeled and Measured Image-plane Polychromatic Speckle Contrast

The statistical properties of speckle relevant to short- to medium-range (tactical) active tracking involving polychromatic illumination are investigated. A numerical model is developed to allow rapid simulation of speckled images including the speckle contrast reduction effects of illuminator bandwidth, surface slope, and roughness, and the polarization properties of both the source and the reflection. Regarding surface slope (relative orientation of the surface normal and illumination/observation directions), Huntley’s theory for speckle contrast, which employs geometrical approximations to decrease computation time, is modified to increase accuracy by incorporation of a geometrical correction factor and better treatment of roughness and polarization. The resulting model shows excellent agreement with more exact theory over a wide range. An experiment is conducted to validate both the numerical model developed here and existing theory. A diode laser source with coherence length of 259±7  μm is reflected off of a silver-coated diffuse surface. Speckle data are gathered for 16 surface slope angles corresponding to speckle contrast between about 0.55 and 1. Taking the measured data as truth, both equations show error mean and standard deviation of less than 3%. Thus, the theory is validated over the range of this experiment

Enhanced, Fast-running Scaling Law Model of Thermal Blooming and Turbulence Effects on High Energy Laser Propagation

A new scaling law model is presented to rapidly simulate thermal blooming and turbulence effects on high energy laser propagation, producing results approaching the quality normally only available using wave-optics code, but at much faster speed. The model convolves irradiance patterns originating from two distinct scaling law models, one with a proficiency in thermal blooming effects and the other in turbulence. To underscore the power of the new model, results are verified for typical, realistic scenarios by direct comparison with wave optics simulation

Motorized Beam Alignment of a Commercial X-ray Diffractometer

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a powerful analysis method that allows researchers to noninvasively probe the crystalline structure of a material. This includes the ability to determine the crystalline phases present, quantify surface residual stresses, and measure the distribution of crystallographic orientations. The Structures and Materials Division at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) heavily uses the on-site XRD lab to characterize advanced metal alloys, ceramics, and polymers. One of the x-ray diffractometers in the XRD lab (Bruker D8 Discover) uses three different x-ray tubes (Cu, Cr, and Mn) for optimal performance over numerous material types and various experimental techniques. This requires that the tubes be switched out and aligned between experiments. This alignment maximizes the x-ray tube s output through an iterative process involving four set screws. However, the output of the x-ray tube cannot be monitored during the adjustment process due to standard radiation safety engineering controls that prevent exposure to the x-ray beam when the diffractometer doors are open. Therefore, the adjustment process is a very tedious series of blind adjustments, each followed by measurement of the output beam using a PIN diode after the enclosure doors are shut. This process can take up to 4 hr to perform. This technical memorandum documents an in-house project to motorize this alignment process. Unlike a human, motors are not harmed by x-ray radiation of the energy range used in this instrument. Therefore, using motors to adjust the set screws will allow the researcher to monitor the x-ray tube s output while making interactive adjustments from outside the diffractometer. The motorized alignment system consists of four motors, a motor controller, and a hand-held user interface module. Our goal was to reduce the alignment time to less than 30 min. The time available was the 10-week span of the Lewis' Educational and Research Collaborative Internship Project (LERCIP) summer internship program and the budget goal was $1200. In this report, we will describe our motorization design and discuss the results of its implementation

Synthesizing Time-evolving Partially-coherent Schell-model Sources

Time-evolving simulation of sources with partial spatial and temporal coherence is sometimes instructive or necessary to explain optical coherence effects. Yet, existing time-evolving synthesis techniques often require prohibitive amounts of computer memory. This paper discusses three methods for the synthesis of continuous or pulsed time-evolving sources with nearly arbitrary spatial and temporal coherence. One method greatly reduces computer memory requirements, making this type of synthesis more practical. The utility of all three methods is demonstrated via a modified form of Young\u27s experiment. Numerical simulation and laboratory results for time-averaged irradiance are presented and compared with theory to validate the synthesis techniques

Speckle Mitigation for Wavefront Sensing in the Presence of Weak Turbulence

When measuring atmospheric turbulence along the propagation path to an extended non-cooperative target, a wavefront sensor normally suffers from severe noise due to speckle. In this work, we quantify the benefits of speckle mitigation via polychromatic illumination for a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor. We obtain results over a wide range of conditions by using the spectral-slicing approach to polychromatic wave-optics simulations. To quantify speckle noise, even when turbulence is present, we introduce a metric involving racetrack-mode strength in slope-discrepancy space. The results show that polychromatic illumination greatly reduces speckle noise under realistic conditions. Even with near worst-case conditions, 15 coherence lengths per resolution cell reduce the wavefront-measurement error by 56%

Wave-optics simulation of correlated speckle fields for use in closed-loop-phase-compensation studies

Copyright © 2018 SPIE. In this study we use a series of computational-wave-optics experiments to look at the statistics associated with speckle fields resulting from a tilted flat plate (i.e. one that is optically rough compared to the wavelength of plane-wave illumination). To help quantify the strength of the simulated speckle, we make use of the target Fresnel number. This parameter gives a gauge for the number of speckles across the receiver. The goal throughout is to show that, frame to frame, the analysis can appropriately simulate correlated speckle fields in terms of the magnitude of the complex degree of coherence as a function of tilt. The results show that the simulated speckle fields are properly correlated from frame to frame, and this outcome leads to the ability to perform closed-loop-phase-compensation studies in the presence of extended beacons. Such studies are becoming increasingly important for applications that involve imaging through turbulence

Comparison of Coherent and Incoherent Laser Beam Combination for Tactical Engagements

The performance of a multibeam laser system is evaluated for coherent and incoherent beam combination under tactical scenarios. For direct comparison, identical aperture geometries are used for both, coherent or incoherent, combination methods. The analysis assumes a multilaser source coupled with a conventional 0.32 m diameter, on-axis, beam director. Parametric analysis includes variations over residual errors, beam quality, atmospheric effects, and scenario geometry. Analytical solutions from previous results are used to evaluate performance for the vacuum case, providing an upper bound on performance and a backdrop for organizing the multitude of effects as they are analyzed. Wave optics simulations are used for total system performance. Each laser in the array has a wavelength of 1.07 μm, 10 kW (25 kW) output power, and Gaussian exitance profile. Both tracking and full-aperture adaptive optics are modeled. Three tactical engagement geometries, air to surface, surface to air, and surface to surface, are evaluated for slant ranges from 2.5 to 10 km. Two near-median atmospheric profiles were selected based upon worldwide climatological data. The performance metric used is beam propagation efficiency for circular target diameters of 5 and 10 cm.Abstract © SPI

Polychromatic Wave-Optics Models for Image-Plane Speckle. 1. Well-Resolved Objects

Polychromatic laser light can reduce speckle noise in wavefront-sensing and imaging applications that use direct-detection schemes. To help quantify the achievable reduction in speckle, this paper investigates the accuracy and numerical efficiency of three separate wave-optics methods. Each method simulates the active illumination of extended objects with polychromatic laser light. In turn, this paper uses the Monte Carlo method, the depth-slicing method, and the spectral-slicing method, respectively, to simulate the laser-object interaction. The limitations and sampling requirements of all three methods are discussed. Further, the numerical efficiencies of the methods are compared over a range of conditions. The Monte Carlo method is found to be the most efficient, while spectral slicing is more efficient than depth slicing for well-resolved objects. Finally, Hu’s theory is used to quantify method accuracy when possible (i.e., for well-resolved objects). In general, the theory compares favorably to the simulation methods. Abstract © OSA

Polychromatic Wave-Optics Models for Image-Plane Speckle 2 Unresolved Objects

Polychromatic laser light can reduce speckle noise in many wavefront-sensing and imaging applications. To help quantify the achievable reduction in speckle noise, this study investigates the accuracy of three polychromatic wave-optics models under the specific conditions of an unresolved object. Because existing theory assumes a well-resolved object, laboratory experiments are used to evaluate model accuracy. The three models use Monte-Carlo averaging, depth slicing, and spectral slicing, respectively, to simulate the laser–object interaction. The experiments involve spoiling the temporal coherence of laser light via a fiber-based, electro-optic modulator. After the light scatters off of the rough object, speckle statistics are measured. The Monte-Carlo method is found to be highly inaccurate, while depth-slicing error peaks at 7.8% but is generally much lower in comparison. The spectral-slicing method is the most accurate, always producing results within the error bounds of the experiment.Abstract © OSA