Compact Optical Transmitters Utilizing Microchip Lasers, BMDO/02-211B

"The overall goal of the proposed program is to develop a new generation of compact solid state lasers for a variety of applications including frequency-hopped millimeter wave communication; chirped Lidar/Ladar for target detection and ranging; generationof high frequency, low jitter clock signals; high resolution Analog to Digital converters; and ultra low-noise millimeter wave signal generation for radar and medical diagnostics. The key element of the proposed research is an electro-optic microchiplaser, a generic device that can be tailored to meet the specific requirements of a variety of applications. The innovative concept is a monolithic optical cavity comprised of a gain section and a modulator section providing for interaction between theoptical and millimeter wave fields. High frequency, low-jitter optical clock oscillators for military and civilian applications, such as A/D conversion in the semiconductor industry; frequency-tunable millimeter wave optical transmitters with very highchirp rates for target detection and medical imaging/diagnostics; secure military and commercial communications; and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) of information signals. The potential market for this family of devices is varied andsignificant, with both military and non-military applications."