Material Related Effects on the Structural Thermal Optical Performance of a Thermally Tunable Narrowband Interferometric Spectral Filter

Abstract

High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) is a backscatter lidar technique that employs an optical/spectral filter to distinguish between particulate (Mie) and molecular (Rayleigh) backscattered light. By separating the two types of returns, higher accuracy measurements are possible that will enable improved climate models, air quality measurements, and climate forecasting. A spaceborne HSRL instrument can provide great impact in these areas by enabling near-continuous measurements across the Earth, however the optical filter technology has typically been too complex for reliable long-duration space flight due to the need for complicated and costly electro-optic feedback loops, extra alignment detectors, and additional laser sources. Furthermore, these complexities limit the filter from use in other applications. In this research, a high-performance, ultra-narrowband interferometric optical filter with a specific thermo-optical behavior has been designed and built. The interferometer has been designed such that it can be reliably adjusted/tuned by simply monitoring and adjusting the temperature. The greatly reduced operational complexity was made possible through high-accuracy thermal characterization of the interferometer materials, combined with detailed Structural-Thermal-Optical-Performance (STOP) modeling to capture the complicated interactions between the materials. The overall design process, fabrication procedures, and characterization of the optical filter are presented.