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International audience; Aza-boron dipyrromethenes (aza-BODIPYs) presenting a benzothiadiazole substitution on upper positions are described. The strong electron-withdrawing effect of the benzothiadiazole moiety permits enhancement of the accepting strength and improves the delocalization of the aza-BODIPY core to attain a significant degree of electronic communication between the lower donating groups and the upper accepting groups. The nature of the intramolecular charge transfer is studied both experimentally and theoretically. Linear spectroscopy highlighted the strongly redshifted absorption and emission of the synthesized molecules with recorded fluorescence spectra over 1000 nm. Nonlinear optical properties were also investigated. Strong enhancement of the two-photon absorption of the substituted dyes compared with the unsubstituted one (up to 4520 GM at 1300 nm) results in an approximately 15-20 % improvement of the optical power limiting performances. These dyes are therefore a good starting point for further improvement of optical power limiting in the short-wave IR range.

Incoherent beam combining of laser beams can increase the available power on target when the output power of a single laser source is limited, and it may also reduce turbulence effects by averaging of scintillations. We have investigated the optimization performance of different variations of the stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm in a setup where five low power laser beams illuminate a cat’s eye retroreflector, and detectors next to the lasers are used to provide feedback for optimization. Angular adjustments of the laser beams are provided by displacement of fiber tips behind collimating lenses. This setup is representative of a dazzling application. Findings include that the optimization demands that there is some initial signal from all laser beams to provide rapid and dependable optimization, which means that the initial pointing errors cannot be much larger than the divergence of the individual beams. Parameter variations show that the sensitivity to settings is relatively low, often a factor two interval of parameter values give an acceptable performance.

In this paper, we present a single pixel camera operating in the Short Wave InfraRed (SWIR) spectral range that reconstructs high resolution images from an ensemble of compressed measurements. The SWIR spectrum provides significant benefits in many applications due to its night vision characteristics and its ability to penetrate smoke and fog. Walsh-Hadamard matrices are used for generating pseudo-random measurements which speed up the reconstruction and enables reconstruction of high resolution images. Total variation regularization is used for finding a sparse solution in the gradient space. The edge response for the single pixel camera is analysed. A large number of outdoor scenes with varying illumination has been collected using the single pixel sensor. Visual inspection of the reconstructed SWIR images indicates that most scenes and objects can be identified after a sample ratio of 3%. The reconstruction quality improves in general as the sample ratio increases, but the quality is not improved significantly after the sample ratio has reached roughly 10%. Dynamic scenes in the form of global illumination variations can be handled by temporal local average suppression of the measurements.

Several new bis-phosphine platinum(II) complexes with 2,5-diaryl-substituted oxazole-containing alkyne ligands have been synthesized and optically characterized in solution. Measurements of nonlinear absorption showed strong attenuation of laser light at 532 and 600 nm. The light absorption of the Pt complexes was shifted from the near-UV region for the ground state to the red region for the excited triplet state, and was associated with large extinction coefficients. The optical limiting effect can be explained by triplet-triplet excited state absorption in conjunction with fast excited singlet-to-triplet intersystem crossing and slow triplet-to-ground-state decay, in comparison with the pulse length of the laser. DFT calculations show good predictability of the S(0)-S(1) and S(0)-T(1) energy gaps and offer insight into the interaction strength between Pt and the alkyne ligands. The use of this type of ligand, with weak absorption for the Pt(II) complexes in the visual wavelength range as a key feature, enables the possibility to further improve these molecular systems for nonlinear absorption applications.

The development of new photonic materials is a key step toward improvement of existing optical devices and for the preparation of a new generation of systems. Therefore synthesis of photonic hybrid materials with a thorough understanding and control of the microstructure-to-properties relationships is crucial. In this perspective, a new preparation method based on fast gelation reactions using simple dispersion of dyes without strong covalent bonding between dye and matrix has been developed. This new sol-gel method is demonstrated through synthesis of monolithic siloxane-based hybrid materials highly doped by various platinum(II) acetylide derivatives. Concentrations of the chromophores as high as 400 mM were obtained and resulted in unprecedented optical power limiting (OPL) performance at 532 nm of the surface-polished solids. Static and time-resolved photoluminescence of the prepared hybrid materials were consistent with both OPL data and previous studies of similar Pt(II) compounds in solution. The impacts of the microstructure and the chemical composition of the matrix on the spectroscopic properties, are discussed.

International audience; Silica-based hybrid materials doped with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different shapes were prepared with an adapted sol–gel technology (using MTEOS) and polished to high optical quality. Both spherical (23 and 45 nm in diameter) and bipyramidal (36, 50 and 78 nm in length) AuNPs were prepared and used as dopants. The AuNPs were functionalized with a novel silicone polymer for compatibilization with the sol–gel medium. The glass materials showed well defined localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorbance from the visible to NIR. No redshifts in the spectra, due to the increase in doping concentration, were observed in the glasses, proving that no or very small SPR coupling effects occur. Spectroscopic Muller Matrix Ellipsometry showed that the shorter bipyramidal AuNPs (36 and 50 nm in length) have a clear preferred orientation in the MTEOS matrix, i.e. a tendency to be oriented with their long axis in the plane parallel to the glass surfaces. Dispersions of AuNPs have proven to be good optical power limiters that depend on particle size and geometry. The solid-state glass materials showed good optical power limiting at 532 nm for nanosecond pulses, which did not depend on the size or geometry of the AuNPs. In contrast to the observation at 532 nm, at 600 nm no optical limiting effect was observed. In these solids, as for dispersions of AuNPs, the optical limiting response is caused by scattering.

Snipers and other optically guided weapon systems are serious threats in military operations. We have studied a SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) camera-based system with capability to detect and locate snipers both before and after shot over a large field-of-view. The high frame rate SWIR-camera allows resolution of the temporal profile of muzzle flashes which is the infrared signature associated with the ejection of the bullet from the rifle. The capability to detect and discriminate sniper muzzle flashes with this system has been verified by FOI in earlier studies. In this work we have extended the system by adding a laser channel for optics detection. A laser diode with slit-shaped beam profile is scanned over the camera field-of-view to detect retro reflection from optical sights. The optics detection system has been tested at various distances up to 1.15 km showing the feasibility to detect rifle scopes in full daylight. The high speed camera gives the possibility to discriminate false alarms by analyzing the temporal data. The intensity variation, caused by atmospheric turbulence, enables discrimination of small sights from larger reflectors due to aperture averaging, although the targets only cover a single pixel. It is shown that optics detection can be integrated in combination with muzzle flash detection by adding a scanning rectangular laser slit. The overall optics detection capability by continuous surveillance of a relatively large field-of-view looks promising. This type of multifunctional system may become an important tool to detect snipers before and after shot.

The detection and classification of small surface targets at long ranges is a growing need for naval security. Laser range profiling offers a new capability for detecting and classifying such targets even if they appear as point (transversally unresolved) targets in radar or passive/active imaging EO sensors. Modifying a conventional laser range finder to have a higher range resolution can this increase it’s value as a sensor. Laser range profiles will reveal basic reflecting structures on the ship. The best information is obtained for profiles along the ship. Several range profiles from different aspects will increase the classification performance. If many aspects angles are possible a tomographic reconstruction of the ship may be done. We have used high resolution (sub cm) laser radar based on time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) to acquire range profiles from different small model ships. The collected waveforms are compared with simulated wave forms based on 3 D models of the ships. A discussion of the classification accuracy based on the number of waveforms from different aspect angles is done as well as the influence of the reflectivity from different parts of the ship is made. The results are discussed with respect to the potential performance of modified laser range finder measuring on real ships and the combination with active imaging.

Tomographic signal processing is used to transform multiple one-dimensional range profiles of a target from different angles to a two-dimensional image of the object. The range profiles are measured by a time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) laser radar system with approximately 50 ps range resolution and a field of view that is wide compared to the measured objects. Measurements were performed in a lab environment with the targets mounted on a rotation stage. We show successful reconstruction of 2D-projections along the rotation axis of a boat model and removal of artefacts using a mask based on the convex hull. The independence of spatial resolution and the high sensitivity at a first glance makes this an interesting technology for very long range identification of passing objects such as high altitude UAVs and orbiting satellites but also the opposite problem of ship identification from high altitude platforms. To obtain an image with useful information measurements from a large angular sector around the object is needed, which is hard to obtain in practice. Examples of reconstructions using 90 and 150° sectors are given. In addition, the projection of the final image is along the rotation axis for the measurement and if this is not aligned with a major axis of the target the image information is limited. There are also practical problems to solve, for example that the distance from the sensor to the rotation centre needs to be known with an accuracy corresponding to the measurement resolution. The conclusion is that that laser radar tomography is useful only when the sensor is fixed and the target rotates around its own axis.