A laser radar system for detecting objects transmits a laser beam which is frequency modulated by the motion of scanning mirrors, which scan the beam across an object to be imaged. The return beam, reflected by the object, is combined with the local oscillator beam, and the frequency difference is detected. This frequency difference is obtained by the Doppler induced frequency modulation which results from the motion of the scanning mirrors. A signal corresponding to this frequency difference ma...

An image amplifying multi-mode laser with image forming elements in the cavity and with a saturable absorber film at the focal plane in the cavity. Radiation from each point of an image is focused on the saturable absorber film so as to enter a distinct mode of the multi-mode laser. Pump power and saturable absorber film density are jointly adjusted so that a mode of the laser oscillates if and only if the intensity of the radiation from the corresponding image point exceeds a given threshold va...

A transformer-driven electro-optic Q-switching arrangement reduces the high-voltage switching requirements with greatly simplified circuitry. Lasing efficiency is not significantly reduced even when the transformer rise time is twice as long as the laser pulse build-up time.

Disclosed is a system for coherent transient Stark switching for low power modulation of an infrared laser beam at a gigahertz rate and a nanosecond risetime. When a molecular frequency of a gas that has been excited by an electric field is shifted out of resonance relative to a laser beam by a coherent Stark pulse, the shifted excited molecular frequency will heterodyne with the laser frequency to give a beat signal having improved modulation depth and increased speed for use in space satellite...

A system of lasers which produces a single pulsed laser beam carrying many channels of digital information simultaneously. The information content of each laser output pulse is determined by the presence or absence of one or more input signal channel frequencies. The presence or absence of each frequency is provided by a plurality of low power CW lasers operating at different frequencies and which are selectively gated in a binary fashion by pulse coded digital input signals to provide digitized...

A laser heterodyne system is disclosed wherein received reflections of a beam of coherent light are amplified in a laser. The amplified received reflections are heterodyned with the light produced by the laser and the resulting beat frequency is detected using a photodetector. A controller, responsive to the beat frequency, controls, in one case, the frequency of a transmitting laser, and hence the frequency of the received light, and, in another case, the frequency of the light produced by the ...

Nd.sup.+ .sup.3 ions serve as a dopant in monocrystalline YA10.sub.3 forming an active solid-state lasing medium.

A high signal reception efficiency, multi-channel Bragg cell is provided for an interferometric acoustooptic signal processor. The Bragg cell comprises a block of acoustooptic material which is illuminated on one block surface by a laser beam. A plurality of sets of electroacoustic transducers are mounted on another surface of the block which is normal to the first block surface and each transducer set is responsive to the output of a different one of a plurality of antennae so that the laser be...

This invention discloses a system for generating a continuous wave (CW) chemically pumped lasing action. A continuous radiation output is achieved by a technique which involves generation of a high speed jet containing a reactant and an inert diluent. A second reactant is diffused into the high speed jet. The chemical reaction between these reactants creates, directly, a vibrationally excited gaseous product with the requisite population inversion and lifetime needed for lasing. The vibrationall...

A broadband laser apparatus and method for amplifying optical frequencies of electromagnetic radiation at different positions utilizing a laser device in which the frequency-determining energy gap varies with the position in the plane normal to the direction of electromagnetic wave propagation so that different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation are amplified at different positions in the transverse plane.