Optonicus (United States)

In this paper, we introduce atmospheric adaptive optics (AO) system architectures that utilize scintillation-resistant wavefront sensors based on iterative phase retrieval (IPR) techniques (described in detail in Part I) for closed-loop mitigation of atmospheric turbulence-induced wavefront aberrations in strong intensity scintillation conditions. The objective is to provide a framework (mathematical and numerical models, performance metrics, control algorithms, and wave-optics modeling and simulation results) for the potential integration of IPR-based wavefront sensing techniques into the following major atmospheric optics system types: directed energy laser beam projection, remote laser power delivery (remote power beaming), and free-space optical communications. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed closed-loop AO system architectures and control algorithms can be uniquely applicable for addressing one of the most challenging AO problems of turbulence effects mitigation in the presence of strong-intensity scintillations.

A wave-optics-based numerical simulation analysis of the impact of speckle-beacon size on the performance of an adaptive optics (AO) system operating in volume atmospheric turbulence is presented. For clarity, the speckle beacon was represented by a laser beam of a super-Gaussian profile, scattered off an extended flat target with Lambertian surface roughness. The control loop of the AO system included a high-resolution scintillation-resistant multi-aperture phase contrast wavefront sensor (MAPCO WFS), an ideal (infinite-resolution) wavefront corrector, and phase-conjugation (PC) type controllers utilizing either conventional PC or advanced speckle-average (SA) PC control algorithms. The results obtained show that the use of the advanced control algorithms makes it possible to partially mitigate the target-induced speckle effects and turbulence-induced wavefront aberrations for extended beacons, the size of which is comparable to or even exceeds the diffraction-limited beam spot size of the corresponding laser beam projection system.

An adaptive optics system based on a novel high-resolution, scintillation resistant wavefront sensor that utilizes phase contrast (Zernike-filter arrangement) visualization technique for operation in deep turbulence conditions is introduced and analyzed using wave-optics numerical simulations.

We present a user-friendly computational platform for numerical analysis and performance assessment of a wide range of optical systems for imaging and laser projection applications. The wave-optics-based software package, referred to as the Wave-Optics Joint Estimation Toolbox (WaveJET), exploits advantages of GPU/CUDA technologies and allows one to quickly and accurately simulate atmospheric turbulence effects on various systems using the combination of different computational techniques and algorithms for wavefront sensing and imaging. The WaveJET software also takes into account critical system engineering design constraints including system architecture, diffraction, turbulence propagation, adaptive optics control, and coherent/incoherent beam combining.

A novel scintillation resistant wavefront sensor based on a densely packed array of classical Zernike filters, referred to as the multi-aperture Zernike wavefront sensor (MAZ-WFS), is introduced and analyzed through numerical simulations. Wavefront phase reconstruction in the MAZ-WFS is performed using iterative algorithms that are optimized for phase aberration sensing in severe atmospheric turbulence conditions. The results demonstrate the potential of the MAZ-WFS for high-resolution retrieval of turbulence-induced phase aberrations in strong scintillation conditions for atmospheric sensing and adaptive optics applications.

A new target-in-the-loop (TIL) atmospheric sensing concept for in situ remote measurements of major laser beam characteristics and atmospheric turbulence parameters is proposed and analyzed numerically. The technique is based on utilization of an integral relationship between complex amplitudes of the counterpropagating optical waves known as overlapping integral or interference metric, whose value is preserved along the propagation path. It is shown that the interference metric can be directly measured using the proposed TIL sensing system composed of a single-mode fiber-based optical transceiver and a remotely located retro-target. The measured signal allows retrieval of key beam and atmospheric turbulence characteristics including scintillation index and the path-integrated refractive index structure parameter.

The performance of two prominent laser beam projection system types is analyzed through wave-optics numerical simulations for various atmospheric turbulence conditions, propagation distances, and adaptive optics (AO) mitigation techniques. Comparisons are made between different configurations of both a conventional beam director (BD) using a monolithic-optics-based Cassegrain telescope and a fiber-array BD that uses an array of densely packed fiber collimators. The BD systems considered have equal input power and aperture diameters. The projected laser beam power inside the Airy size disk at the target plane is used as the performance metric. For the fiber-array system, both incoherent and coherent beam combining regimes are considered. We also present preliminary results of side-by-side atmospheric beam projection experiments over a 7-km propagation path using both the AO-enhanced beam projection system with a Cassegrain telescope and the coherent fiber-array BD composed of 21 densely packed fiber collimators. Both wave-optics numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that, for similar system architectures and turbulence conditions, coherent fiber-array systems are more efficient in mitigation of atmospheric turbulence effects and generation of a hit spot of the smallest possible size on a remotely located target.

Fiber-integrated phase shifters of coherent fiber array laser systems allow extremely fast (GHz rate) control of transmitted beam phase offering the unexplored possibility for engineering of laser beams and turbulence mitigation for various applications.

This paper discusses time-frequency analysis of clinical percussion signals produced by tapping over human chest or abdomen with a neurological hammer and recorded with an air microphone. The analysis of short, highly damped percussion signals using conventional time-frequency distributions (TFDs) meets certain difficulties, such as poor time-frequency localization, cross terms, and masking of the lower energy features by the higher energy ones. The above shortcomings lead to inaccurate and ambiguous representation of the signal behavior in the time-frequency plane. This work describes an attempt to construct a TF representation specifically tailored to clinical percussion signals to achieve better resolution of individual components corresponding to physical oscillation modes. Matrix Pencil Method (MPM) is used to decompose the signal into a set of exponentially damped sinusoids, which are then plotted in the time-frequency plane. Such representation provides better visualization of the signal structure than the commonly used frequency-amplitude plots and facilitates tracking subtle changes in the signal for diagnostic purposes. The performance of our approach has been verified on both ideal and real percussion signals. The MPM-based time-frequency analysis appears to be a better choice for clinical percussion signals than conventional TFDs, while its ability to visualize damping has immediate practical applications.

Used for centuries in the clinical practice, audible percussion is a method of eliciting sounds by tapping various areas of the human body either by finger tips or by a percussion hammer. Despite its advantages, pulmonary diagnostics by percussion is still highly subjective, depends on the physician's skills, and requires quiet surroundings. Automation of this well-established technique could help amplify its existing merits while removing the above drawbacks. In this work, clinical percussion signals from normal volunteers are decomposed into a sum of exponentially damped sinusoids (EDS) whose parameters are determined using the Matrix Pencil Method. Some EDS represent transient oscillation modes of the thorax/abdomen excited by the percussion event, while others are associated with the noise. It is demonstrated that relatively few EDS are usually enough to accurately reconstruct the original signal. It is shown that combining the frequency and damping parameters of these most significant EDS allows for efficient classification of percussion signals into the two main types historically known as "resonant" and "tympanic." This classification ability can provide a basis for the automated objective diagnostics of various pulmonary pathologies including pneumothorax. The algorithm can be implemented on an embedded platform for the battlefield and other emergency applications.