SBIR Phase II: A Large Mosaic Liquid Crystal Fabry-Perot Etalon for Atmospheric Sensing

SBIR 第二阶段：用于大气传感的大型马赛克液晶法布里-珀罗标准具

• 批准号: 0079163
• 负责人: Robert Kerr
• 金额: $ 39.78万
• 依托单位: Scientific Solutions Incorporated
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2002-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0079163&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Large; Mosaic

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses the traditional size limit of the Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) input aperture. This limit (approximately 8-inches) is imposed by (1) practical fabrication limits to the size of glass flats that can be polished to a surface figure of lambda/100 and (2) by cost limitations. Although an array of smaller glass plates might be used to expand the collecting area of the FPI, coordination of spectral scans over the array elements requires unwieldy control systems or else is not possible with conventional barometric or piezo-electric FRI systems. This research establishes arrays of innovative FPI etalons that use liquid crystal (LC) in the FPI resonant cavity. Spectral scanning of these devices is accomplished by application of a low current to conducting layers applied to the glass substrates. The electric field imposed upon liquid crystal in the resonant cavity alters the orientation of the LC, and thus the index of refraction of the material in the resonant cavity. The ease of electronic control over the refractive index in the FPI cavity permits simple, low weight, low power coordination of multiple LC filled cells and thus makes possible a large array of FPI cells, scanning a spectrum in unison. Phase II will design and fabricate two 10-inch diameter arrays of LC FPI (LCFP) filters. One array will be configured for Doppler measurements of atmospheric emissions and the other for 0.16-nanometer spectral resolution.Potential commercial applications are expected in (1) atmospheric lidar, (2) space-based environmental sensing, (3) passive airglow sensing, (4) clear-air turbulence detection, and (5) target detection.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目解决了法布里-珀罗干涉仪（FPI）输入孔径的传统尺寸限制。这个限制（大约8英寸）是由以下因素造成的：(1)可抛光到λ /100表面图形的玻璃平板尺寸的实际制造限制和(2)成本限制。虽然可以使用一组较小的玻璃板来扩大FPI的收集面积，但在阵列元素上协调光谱扫描需要笨重的控制系统，否则传统的气压或压电FRI系统是不可能的。本研究建立了在FPI谐振腔中使用液晶（LC）的创新FPI标准子阵列。这些器件的光谱扫描是通过对玻璃基板上的导电层施加低电流来完成的。施加在谐振腔内液晶上的电场改变了液晶的取向，从而改变了谐振腔内材料的折射率。电子控制FPI腔内折射率的便性允许多个LC填充单元的简单，低重量，低功耗协调，从而使大型FPI单元阵列成为可能，同时扫描光谱。第二阶段将设计和制造两个直径10英寸的LC FPI （LCFP）滤波器阵列。一个阵列将用于大气发射的多普勒测量，另一个阵列将用于0.16纳米光谱分辨率。潜在的商业应用有望在：(1)大气激光雷达，(2)天基环境传感，(3)被动气辉传感，(4)晴空湍流探测，以及(5)目标探测。