Optical Receiver.

The objective of this program was to design, fabricate, test, and deliver an optical receiver for use in a high-speed, digital laser communication link. It will be used in experiments in the laboratory, as well as in field facilities, to detect the modulated 300 Mpps fundamental 1.06 micrometer wavelength, or the doubled 0.53 micrometer wavelength, output of a mode-locked NdYAG laser communication transmitter. This program included a detector-receiver and electronic design phase, a fabrication phase, an evaluation phase, and a study which included reliability and maintainability considerations for the optical receiver. The approach taken exploited the properties of a 1200 MHz dynamic crossed field photomultiplier DCFP to detect the 300 Mbps data from a digitally modulated mode-locked NdYAG laser. At the conclusion of the development program, an optical receiver, with two interchangeable 1200 MHz DCFP detector heads, and an electronic control unit were delivered. The unit is only operable at 300 Mbps. Author