Fiber Coupled Laser Illuminator.

The report describes the effort associated with the development and test of a room temperature Injection Laser Illuminator employing fiber optics. The use of fiber optics provides the means whereby essentially a point source aperture can be attained. The work effort associated with the design was concerned with fiber optics, array technology and electronics. The fiber optics effort consisted of developing polishing and coupling techniques along with production techniques. The array technology effort demonstrated the feasibility of assembling 66 fiber coupled diodes into one segment in conjunction with the associated modulator, driver, and cooling unit. The electronics effort demonstrated that charging and driving circuits performed successfully along with thermoelectric control circuits. Modified author abstract