Engineering topics
Strekalov, Dmitry
Publications and source records attributed to Strekalov, Dmitry.
Kalman Filter Input Processor for Boresight Calibration
Ka-band ranging provides the phase center (PC) to phase center range, which needs to be converted to the center of mass (CM) to center of mass range. Nominally, both PC and CM lie on the line connecting the spacecraft GRAIL A and GRAIL B. In this case, the conversion should be done simply by adding the CM-to-PC distance L to the measured range for both spacecraft. However, due to various technical reasons, such as displacement of the true CM from its nominal position in the SRF, or spacecraft attitude fluctuations, the PC and CM define a unit vector that may be different from the nominal line of sight. The objectives of the software are to determine the actual line of sight direction for each spacecraft and correct the previously recorded range data, and to provide instructions for how to maneuver each spacecraft to make necessary attitude corrections.
GRAIL Science Data System Orbit Determination: Approach, Strategy, and Performance
No abstract available
GRAIL Science Data System Orbit Determination : Approach, Strategy, and Performance
This paper details orbit determination techniques and strategies employed within each stage of the larger iterative process of preprocessing raw GRAIL data into the gravity science measurements used within gravity field solutions. Each orbit determination pass used different data, corrections to them, and/or estimation parameters. We compare performance metrics among these passes. For example, for the primary mission, the magnitude of residuals using our orbits progressed from approximately or equal to19.4 to 0.077 approximately or equal to m/s for inter-satellite range rate data and from approximately or equal to 0.4 to approximately or equal to 0.1 mm/s for Doppler data.
The Role of GRAIL Orbit Determination in Preprocessing of Gravity Science Measurements
No abstract available
The Role of GRAIL Orbit Determination in Preprocessing of Gravity Science Measurements
The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has constructed a lunar gravity field with unprecedented uniform accuracy on the farside and nearside of the Moon. GRAIL lunar gravity field determination begins with preprocessing of the gravity science measurements by applying corrections for time tag error, general relativity, measurement noise and biases. Gravity field determination requires the generation of spacecraft ephemerides of an accuracy not attainable with the pre-GRAIL lunar gravity fields. Therefore, a bootstrapping strategy was developed, iterating between science data preprocessing and lunar gravity field estimation in order to construct sufficiently accurate orbit ephemerides.This paper describes the GRAIL measurements, their dependence on the spacecraft ephemerides and the role of orbit determination in the bootstrapping strategy. Simulation results will be presented that validate the bootstrapping strategy followed by bootstrapping results for flight data, which have led to the latest GRAIL lunar gravity fields.
Dual-Mode Frequency Stabilization of a Whispering Gallery Mode Optical Reference Cavity
No abstract available
Exploring the Frequency Stability Limits of Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators for Metrological Applications
Whispering gallery mode resonators are attracting increasing interest as promising frequency reference cavities. Unlike commonly used Fabry-Perot cavities, however, they are filled with a bulk medium whose properties have a significant impact on the stability of its resonance frequencies. In this context that has to be reduced to a minimum. On the other hand, a small monolithic resonator provides opportunity for better stability against vibration and acceleration. this feature is essential when the cavity operates in a non-laboratory environment. In this paper, we report a case study for a crystalline resonator, and discuss the a pathway towards the inhibition of vibration-and acceleration-induced frequency fluctuations.
Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators as Optical Reference Cavities
Highly stabilized lasers are an increasingly valuable tool for metrology. For many applications, however, existing Fabry Perot systems are too bulky and cumbersome. We are investigating the use of miniature monolithic whispering gallery mode resonators as reference cavities for laser stabilization. We seek to exploit the benefit of small size and vibration resistance by suppressing thermally induced frequency fluctuations. We have theoretically investigated the viability of using a thin-film coating to achieve temperature compensation. We have experimentally investigated an active temperature stabilization scheme based on birefringence in a crystalline resonator. We also report progress of laser locking to the resonators.
Phase-Array Approach to Optical Whispering Gallery Modulators
This technology leverages the well-defined orbital number of a whispering gallery modulator (WGM) to expand the range of applications for such resonators. This property rigidly connects the phase variation of the field in this mode with the azimuthal angle between the coupling locations. A WGM with orbital momentum L has exactly L instant nodes around the circumference of the WGM resonator supporting such a mode. Therefore, in two locations separated by the arc alpha, the phase difference of such a field will be equal to phi= alpha L. Coupling the field out of such locations, and into a balanced interferometer, once can observe a complete constructive or distractive interference (or have any situation in between) depending on the angle alpha. Similarly, a mode L + delta L will pick up the phase phi + alpha delta L. In all applications of a WGM resonator as a modulator, the orbital numbers for the carrier and sidebands are different, and their differences delta L are known (usually, but not necessarily, delta L = 1). Therefore, the choice of the angle alpha, and of the interferometer arms difference, allows one to control the relative phase between different modes and to perform the conversion, separation, and filtering tasks necessary.
Using Whispering-Gallery-Mode Resonators for Refractometry
A method of determining the refractive and absorptive properties of optically transparent materials involves a combination of theoretical and experimental analysis of electromagnetic responses of whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonator disks made of those materials. The method was conceived especially for use in studying transparent photorefractive materials, for which purpose this method affords unprecedented levels of sensitivity and accuracy. The method is expected to be particularly useful for measuring temporally varying refractive and absorptive properties of photorefractive materials at infrared wavelengths. Still more particularly, the method is expected to be useful for measuring drifts in these properties that are so slow that, heretofore, the properties were assumed to be constant. The basic idea of the method is to attempt to infer values of the photorefractive properties of a material by seeking to match (1) theoretical predictions of the spectral responses (or selected features thereof) of a WGM of known dimensions made of the material with (2) the actual spectral responses (or selected features thereof). Spectral features that are useful for this purpose include resonance frequencies, free spectral ranges (differences between resonance frequencies of adjacently numbered modes), and resonance quality factors (Q values). The method has been demonstrated in several experiments, one of which was performed on a WGM resonator made from a disk of LiNbO3 doped with 5 percent of MgO. The free spectral range of the resonator was approximately equal to 3.42 GHz at wavelengths in the vicinity of 780 nm, the smallest full width at half maximum of a mode was approximately equal to 50 MHz, and the thickness of the resonator in the area of mode localization was 30 microns. In the experiment, laser power of 9 mW was coupled into the resonator with an efficiency of 75 percent, and the laser was scanned over a frequency band 9 GHz wide at a nominal wavelength of approximately equal to 780 nm. Resonance frequencies were measured as functions of time during several hours of exposure to the laser light. The results of these measurements, plotted in the figure, show a pronounced collective frequency drift of the resonator modes. The size of the drift has been estimated to correspond to a change of 8.5 x 10(exp -5) in the effective ordinary index of refraction of the resonator material.
Focusing Light Beams To Improve Atomic-Vapor Optical Buffers
Specially designed focusing of light beams has been proposed as a means of improving the performances of optical buffers based on cells containing hot atomic vapors (e.g., rubidium vapor). There is also a companion proposal to improve performance by use of incoherent optical pumping under suitable conditions. Regarding the proposal to use focusing: The utility of atomic-vapor optical buffers as optical storage and processing devices has been severely limited by nonuniform spatial distributions of intensity in optical beams, arising from absorption of the beams as they propagate in atomic-vapor cells. Such nonuniformity makes it impossible to optimize the physical conditions throughout a cell, thereby making it impossible to optimize the performance of the cell as an optical buffer. In practical terms simplified for the sake of brevity, "to optimize" as used here means to design the cell so as to maximize the group delay of an optical pulse while keeping the absorption and distortion of the pulse reasonably small. Regarding the proposal to use incoherent optical pumping: For reasons too complex to describe here, residual absorption of light is one of the main impediments to achievement of desirably long group delays in hot atomic vapors. The present proposal is directed toward suppressing residual absorption of light. The idea of improving the performance of slow-light optical buffers by use of incoherent pumping overlaps somewhat with the basic idea of Raman-based slow-light systems. However, prior studies of those systems did not quantitatively answer the question of whether the performance of an atomic vapor or other medium that exhibits electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with Raman gain is superior to that of a medium that exhibits EIT without Raman gain.
Dynamic Self-Locking of an OEO Containing a VCSEL
A method of dynamic self-locking has been demonstrated to be effective as a means of stabilizing the wavelength of light emitted by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) that is an active element in the frequency-control loop of an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) designed to implement an atomic clock based on an electromagnetically- induced-transparency (EIT) resonance. This scheme can be considered an alternative to the one described in Optical Injection Locking of a VCSEL in an OEO (NPO-43454), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 33, No. 7 (July 2009), page 33. Both schemes are expected to enable the development of small, low-power, high-stability atomic clocks that would be suitable for use in applications involving precise navigation and/or communication. To recapitulate from the cited prior article: In one essential aspect of operation of an OEO of the type described above, a microwave modulation signal is coupled into the VCSEL. Heretofore, it has been well known that the wavelength of light emitted by a VCSEL depends on its temperature and drive current, necessitating thorough stabilization of these operational parameters. Recently, it was discovered that the wavelength also depends on the microwave power coupled into the VCSEL. This concludes the background information. From the perspective that led to the conception of the optical injection-locking scheme described in the cited prior article, the variation of the VCSEL wavelength with the microwave power circulating in the frequency-control loop is regarded as a disadvantage and optical injection locking is a solution of the problem of stabilizing the wavelength in the presence of uncontrolled fluctuations in the microwave power. The present scheme for dynamic self-locking emerges from a different perspective, in which the dependence of VCSEL wavelength on microwave power is regarded as an advantageous phenomenon that can be exploited as a means of controlling the wavelength. The figure schematically depicts an atomic-clock OEO of the type in question, wherein (1) the light from the VCSEL is used to excite an EIT resonance in selected atoms in a gas cell (e.g., 87Rb atoms in a low-pressure mixture of Ar and Ne) and (2) the power supplied to the VCSEL is modulated by a microwave signal that includes components at beat frequencies among the VCSEL wavelength and modulation sidebands. As the VCSEL wavelength changes, it moves closer to or farther from a nearby absorption spectral line, and the optical power transmitted through the cell (and thus the loop gain) changes accordingly. A change in the loop gain causes a change in the microwave power and, thus, in the VCSEL wavelength. It is possible to choose a set of design and operational parameters (most importantly, the electronic part of the loop gain) such that the OEO stabilizes itself in the sense that an increase in circulating microwave power causes the VCSEL wavelength to change in a direction that results in an increase in optical absorption and thus a decrease in circulating microwave power. Typically, such an appropriate choice of operational parameters involves setting the nominal VCSEL wavelength to a point on the shorter-wavelength wing of an absorption spectral line.
Nonlinear Thermal Compensators for WGM Resonators
In an alternative version of a proposed bimaterial thermal compensator for a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical resonator, a mechanical element having nonlinear stiffness would be added to enable stabilization of a desired resonance frequency at a suitable fixed working temperature. The previous version was described in "Bimaterial Thermal Compensators for WGM Resonators." Both versions are intended to serve as inexpensive means of preventing (to first order) or reducing temperature-related changes in resonance frequencies.
A Technique for Adjusting Eigenfrequencies of WGM Resonators
A simple technique has been devised for making small, permanent changes in the eigenfrequencies (resonance frequencies) of whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) dielectric optical resonators that have high values of the resonance quality factor (Q). The essence of the technique is to coat the resonator with a thin layer of a transparent polymer having an index of refraction close to that of the resonator material. Successive small frequency adjustments can be made by applying successive coats. The technique was demonstrated on a calcium fluoride resonator to which successive coats of a polymer were applied by use of a hand-made wooden brush. To prevent temperature- related frequency shifts that could interfere with the verification of the effectiveness of this technique, the temperature of the resonator was stabilized by means of a three-stage thermoelectric cooler. Measurements of the resonator spectrum showed the frequency shifts caused by the successive coating layers.
Optical Injection Locking of a VCSEL in an OEO
Optical injection locking has been demonstrated to be effective as a means of stabilizing the wavelength of light emitted by a vertical-cavity surface- emitting laser (VCSEL) that is an active element in the frequency-control loop of an opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) designed to implement an atomic clock based on an electromagnetically- induced-transparency resonance. This particular optical-injection- locking scheme is expected to enable the development of small, low-power, high-stability atomic clocks that would be suitable for use in applications involving precise navigation and/or communication. In one essential aspect of operation of an OEO of the type described above, a microwave modulation signal is coupled into the VCSEL. Heretofore, it has been well known that the wavelength of light emitted by a VCSEL depends on its temperature and drive current, necessitating thorough stabilization of these operational parameters. Recently, it was discovered that the wavelength also depends on the microwave power coupled into the VCSEL. Inasmuch as the microwave power circulating in the frequency-control loop is a dynamic frequency-control variable (and, hence, cannot be stabilized), there arises a need for another means of stabilizing the wavelength. The present optical-injection-locking scheme satisfies the need for a means to stabilize the wavelength against microwave- power fluctuations. It is also expected to afford stabilization against temperature and current fluctuations. In an experiment performed to demonstrate this scheme, wavelength locking was observed when about 200 W of the output power of a commercial tunable diode laser was injected into a commercial VCSEL, designed to operate in the wavelength range of 795+/-3 nm, that was generating about 200 microW of optical power. (The use of relatively high injection power levels is a usual practice in injection locking of VCSELs.)
Spectrum Analyzers Incorporating Tunable WGM Resonators
A photonic instrument is proposed to boost the resolution for ultraviolet/ optical/infrared spectral analysis and spectral imaging allowing the detection of narrow (0.00007-to-0.07-picometer wavelength resolution range) optical spectral signatures of chemical elements in space and planetary atmospheres. The idea underlying the proposal is to exploit the advantageous spectral characteristics of whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators to obtain spectral resolutions at least three orders of magnitude greater than those of optical spectrum analyzers now in use. Such high resolutions would enable measurement of spectral features that could not be resolved by prior instruments.
Ultra-Broad-Band Optical Parametric Amplifier or Oscillator
A concept for an ultra-broad-band optical parametric amplifier or oscillator has emerged as a by-product of a theoretical study in fundamental quantum optics. The study was originally intended to address the question of whether the two-photon temporal correlation function of light [in particular, light produced by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC)] can be considerably narrower than the inverse of the spectral width (bandwidth) of the light. The answer to the question was found to be negative. More specifically, on the basis of the universal integral relations between the quantum two-photon temporal correlation and the classical spectrum of light, it was found that the lower limit of two-photon correlation time is set approximately by the inverse of the bandwidth. The mathematical solution for the minimum two-photon correlation time also provides the minimum relative frequency dispersion of the down-converted light components; in turn, the minimum relative frequency dispersion translates to the maximum bandwidth, which is important for the design of an ultra-broad-band optical parametric oscillator or amplifier. In the study, results of an analysis of the general integral relations were applied in the case of an optically nonlinear, frequency-dispersive crystal in which SPDC produces collinear photons. Equations were found for the crystal orientation and pump wavelength, specific for each parametric-down-converting crystal, that eliminate the relative frequency dispersion of collinear degenerate (equal-frequency) signal and idler components up to the fourth order in the frequency-detuning parameter