Acousto-optic null steering adaptive photonic processor architecture for phased arrays

Abstract

Two novel all-optical acousto-optic processor designs are introduced for antenna null steering applications. Both designs use an acousto-optic point modulator and a multi- channel acousto-optic deflector in a unique in-line arrangement to form a write/read two color system. One processor is a forward light flow optical design, while the other is a reversible light flow optical architecture. A write-only acousto-optic multichannel correlator processor design is also introduced using a counter-propagating signal correlator design. This processor also uses a time integrating detector such as a two dimensional charge coupled device or a high dynamic range photorefractive crystal for bias free correlation signal detection.