Integrated Optical Heterodyne Source for Multiaxis Inertial Measurement Units

ABSTRACT:The overall technical objective for this effort is to develop a range of miniaturized integrated optical sources for alkali-atom based systems, including atomic clocks, inertial measurements systems, and cold-atom systems. These components should have a performance matching or exceeding todays state-of-art discrete components that are typically used in such systems. To achieve this goal, Freedom Photonics is proposing to develop an GaAs photonic integration platform that can be applied to Alkali-Atom systems and enable these future compact and ruggedized solutions. The initial target is to address Rubidium-atom systems in the 780-795nm range, however, the base platform to be developed is applicable over the full 600nm to 1,000nm range.BENEFIT:The development of compact photonic integrated sources will allow a wide range of alkali based systems to be realized with significantly reduced Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) compared to todays systems based on discrete optical components, which is of fundamental importance to many defense and commercial applications. The main application areas for this photonic integration technology are: atomic clocks, pump sources for Rubidium Ring Lasers, Cold-Atom Systems and Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers (DPSSL).