CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PHOTONIC COMPONENTS OF A MULTI-CHANNEL OPTICAL CORRELATOR BASED ON BINARY OPTICS

BINARY OPTICS PROVIDES THE KEY TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE-OF-THE-ART MULTI-CHANNEL OPTICAL CORRELATORS. THE KEY COMPONENTS FOR THE CORRELATOR ARE: A LARGE APERTURE, WIDE-FIELD DIFFRACTIVE FOURIER TRANSFORM LEN; A BINARY PHASE GRATING THAT DIFFRACTS LIGHT INTO EQUAL INTENSITY ORDERS; AND A TWO-DIMENSIONAL ARRAY OF DIFFRACTIVE MICROLENSES. IN THIS EFFORT, THE EMPHASIS IS PLACED ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PHOTONIC COMPONENTS FOR AN ALLDIFFRACTIVE, COMPACT, MASSIVELY PARALLEL, OPTICAL CORRELATOR THAT CONSISTS OF HUNDREDS OF INDEPENDENT CORRELATION CHANNELS. OUR INTENT IS TO IDENTIFY INNOVATIVE METHODS OF TESTING THE DIFFRACTIVE COMPONENTS AND TO ADVANCE THE STATE-OF-THE-ART IN CHARACTERIZING THE NECESSARY SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS AND DETECTORS. NOVEL TECHNIQUES INCLUDING HARDWARE TO CHARACTERIZE THE DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY AND IMAGING PROPERTIES OF THE DIFFRACTIVE ELEMENTS WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR IMPLEMENTATION DURING PHASE II. TO TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF OUR APPROACH FOR A SPECIFIC APPLICATION, WE PROPOSE TO ADDRESS THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR A MULTI-CHANNEL OPTICAL CORRELATOR SYSTEM FOR IMAGE IDENTIFICATION. PARTICULAR ATTENTION WILL BE GIVEN TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE OUTPUT CORRELATION IMAGE, POSSIBLY USING NEURAL NETWORKS, TO PROVIDE CONTROL FUNCTIONS FOR TARGET IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING APPLICATIONS. IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT A PORTION OF THE RESEARCH WILL BE PERFORMED BY ROCHESTER PHOTONIC'S PERSONNEL AT THE RADC PHOTONICS LABORATORY.