Wide-area acousto-optic hydrophone
US4422167A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 25, 1981 |
| Grant date | Dec 20, 1983 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 25, 2001 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01V1/226
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A wide-area acousto-optic hydrophone which uses signal and reference laser beams together with interferometric methods for detecting underwater acoustic signals. The signal beam is distributed across the wide sensing area of the hydrophone using beam folding techniques while being directly transmitted through a sensing chamber filled with an optically transparent bulk material, the refractive index of which varies with the incident acoustic pressure thereby modulating the signal beam. Concurrently, a reference beam of equal length and folded in an identical pattern is directly passed through an adjacent chamber filled with the same bulk material. A microhole joins the two chambers, to expose the reference beam to the same static pressure and temperature fluctuations as the signal beam thus serving as a low pass filter. The modulated signal beam and the unmodulated reference beam are then combined and superimposed on the surface of a photodetector, the output of which is proportional to the phase shifts produced by the incident acoustic signals.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.