Date of Award

9-15-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Jason D. Schmidt, PhD.

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research was to better understand the performance of a self-referencing interferometer (SRI) when used with extended beacons in strong atmospheric turbulence. It was performed by assuming the extended beacon could be modeled as a Gaussian Schell-model beam, then analyzing the effect of propagating this beam through strong atmospheric turbulence. Since the operation of an SRI requires coupling this light into a single-mode optical fiber, analytic expressions of the mean and normalized variance of the coupling efficiency were derived. An improved noise model for the SRI was then developed that included all potential noise sources such as intensity fluctuations of the incident light, the single-mode fiber coupling efficiency, the spatial and temporal coherence properties of the light, and other additive noise sources. Whenever simplifying assumptions were used, the results were compared to numerically evaluated exact expressions or Monte Carlo simulations. Any resulting error was identified then typically compensated.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-DEO-ENG-11-12

DTIC Accession Number

ADA549074

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