Abstract

High gain, a small aperture, a short length, and light weight are primary requirements to an optical antenna which is used in optical radio communications or laser radars.¹ In a conventional telescope, the phase is made uniform on the aperture, but the amplitude is not changed significantly from the original pattern of its primary radiator, mostly a Gaussian pattern. From the antenna engineering, the aperture efficiency is limited to 71% in the case of Gaussian distribution with −20 dB taper level. To overcome the limitation, an optical antenna with shaped reflectors has been proposed, and manufactured as a first trial. This paper describes the constitution and experimental results of the optical antenna.

© 1995 IEEE