The far-infrared and millimeter wave (FIR/mmW) (wavelength 75 micrometer to 10 mm) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is fairly underdeveloped technologically, owing to the large amount of atmospheric attenuation in that range. At present, the FIR/mmW region is lacking in compact, high-brightness radiation sources and practical imaging systems. This dissertation focuses on development of two complementary technologies in this area - an active mmW imaging system and high-reflectivity Bragg mirrors for the FIR p-Ge laser. The imaging system uses a vector network analyzer in the frequency range of 90-140 GHz as the radiation source and receiver. Raster scanning is used to map a two-dimensional field of view, demonstrating the detection and imaging of buried plastic landmines. Principal components analysis is used for hyperspectral signal processing, where a series of images is taken at discrete frequencies. Results are obtained as a function of depth and disturbance of the soil surface. In support of this study, various types of soils were characterized for scattering loss across the mmW/FIR region, with measured results compared to theory. This mmW imaging system was also used to demonstrate imaging through walls and other obscuring materials, as well as for imaging of rocks beneath volcanic sand, simulating the conditions encountered by an imaging system on a Mars rover vehicle. Furthermore, a high-reflectivity Si-etalon FIR mirror design was developed and demonstrated as a cavity mirror for the p-Ge laser. These components stand to have a number of systems-level impacts on FIR imagers. In the context of an active illuminator, they may allow narrowband selection from the broad emission spectrum of the p-Ge laser source. These mirrors can also be used in a Fabry-Perot FIR scanning spectrometer, where the resulting high finesse would give discrimination advantages in chemical sensing and astrophysical spectroscopy applications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-4149 |
| Date | 01 January 2007 |
| Creators | Du Bosq, Todd |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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