Near millimeter bistable device
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorsRaymond Y. Chiao, Harold R. Fetterman, Howard R. Schlossberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A near millimeter bistable device having a source of electromagnetic radiation in optical alignment with a variable reflecting means in the form of a Schottky barrier diode corner cube assembly. Interposed between the radiation source and the variable reflecting means is a beam splitter which reflects a beam of energy from the variable reflecting means through another beam splitter to a detector. The voltage produced by the detector is fed through a feedback circuit back to the variable reflecting means in order to vary the reflectivity thereof. In this manner the output of the device emanating from the other beam splitter has two stable conditions, one of relatively high output power and one of relatively low output power.
Claims7
A near millimeter wavelength bistable device comprising means for producing a beam of electromagnetic radiation at near millimeter wavelength at a preselected power, means in optical alignment with said radiation producing means for variably reflecting said beam of radiation, first means optically interposed between said radiation producing means and said variable reflecting means for directing said beam of electromagnetic radiation to said variable reflecting means and for reflecting said reflected beam from said variable reflecting means away therefrom, second means optically aligned with said reflected beam from said first directing and reflecting means for directing a portion of said reflected beam out of said bistable device as an output and reflecting the remaining portion away therefrom, means optically aligned with said remaining portion of said beam from said second directing and reflecting means for detecting said remaining portion of said reflected beam of electromagnetic radiation and providing a voltage in accordance with the power of said reflected beam of radiation, and means electrically connected between said detecting means and said variable reflecting means for providing a signal in accordance with said voltage produced by said detecting means to said variable reflecting means for altering the reflectivity of said variable reflecting means whereby said output produced by said bistable device has two stable conditions, one of said stable conditions being at a relatively high output power and the other of said stable conditions being at a relatively low output power.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.