Active illumination uniformity with narrow spectrum laser based on ladderlike phase modulation

Abstract

<sec>Active illumination is a crucial technology for active imaging, active tracking and aiming system. But the atmosphere turbulence distributed over the entire path causes the intensity to fluctuate, which reduces the illumination uniformity seriously. Therefore, it is desirable to find ways to reduce the intensity fluctuation and improve the uniformity of active illumination. It has been revealed that one can improve illumination uniformity by using multi-beam laser illuminator. Another effective approach is partially coherent beam illumination.</sec><sec>In this paper, a novel method is suggested to improve the illumination uniformity. Phase disturbance is induced by a ladder-like phase modulator (LPM) and the transmitting field of narrow spectrum laser is confused, and thus the atmosphere turbulence will be compensated and the illumination uniformity will be improved. The physical models of narrow spectrum laser phase modulation and atmosphere propagation are deduced, and the expression of the facular distribution is obtained. The active-illumination experimental setup with a laser propagation distance of 1.8 km through horizontal atmosphere is established. Based on the facular distribution of illumination laser at 1.8 km, the uniformity and stabilization are achieved. The experimental results indicate that the illumination uniformity and stabilization are both improved. The spatial and central time scintillation indexes are improved from 0.73 to 0.33 and from 0.38 to 0.14, respectively.</sec>