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AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation
InventorsChristopher W. Tischhauser, James E. Mason
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Optical filters tunable for both center wavelength and bandwidth, having applications such as in astronomy, remote sensing, laser spectroscopy, and other laser-based sensing applications, using Michelson interferometers or Mach-Zehnder interferometers modified with Gires-Tournois interferometers (“GTIs”) are disclosed. A GTI nominally has unity magnitude reflectance as a function of wavelength and has a phase response based on its resonator characteristics. Replacing the end mirrors of a Michelson interferometer or the fold mirrors of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with GTIs results in both high visibility throughput as well as the ability to tune the phase response characteristics to change the width of the bandpass/notch filters. A range of bandpass/bandreject optical filter modes, including a Fabry-Perot (“FP”) mode, a wideband, low-ripple FP mode, a narrowband notch/bandpass mode, and a wideband notch/bandpass mode, are all tunable and wavelength addressable.
An optical filter comprising a Michelson interferometer or a Mach-Zehnder interferometer having a first optical path length L1 and a second optical path length L2, the Michelson interferometer or the Mach-Zehnder interferometer further having a plurality of Gires-Tournois interferometers (“GTIs”) replacing a plurality of mirrors of the Michelson interferometer or the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, a first one of the plurality of GTIs having a first GTI physical spacing d1, a second one of the plurality of GTIs having a second GTI physical spacing d2,
An optical filter comprising a Michelson interferometer or a Mach-Zehnder interferometer having a first optical path length L1 and a second optical path length L2, the Michelson interferometer or the Mach-Zehnder interferometer further having a plurality of Gires-Tournois interferometers (“GTIs”) replacing a plurality of mirrors of the Michelson interferometer or the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, a first one of the plurality of GTIs having a first GTI physical spacing d1, a second one of the plurality of GTIs having a second GTI physical spacing d2,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.