Abstract

A technique is described in which small (25-μm) hypervelocity (10-km/sec) in-flight particles can be detected in the presence of high background noise. The system is based on a spatial filtering principle whereby spurious noise effects are reduced by use of a beam stop in the entrance aperture of the system and a bandpass filter in the transform plane. A theoretical analysis of the system is presented, and some experimental results are obtained by detecting in-flight hypervelocity particles generated by an exploding lithium wire electrothermal accelerator.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Plasma flow and fast particles in a hypervelocity accelerator: a color presentation

E. B. Igenbergs, B. Cour-Palais, E. Fisher, and O. Stehle
Appl. Opt. 14(10) 2542-2548 (1975)

Scattering from small particles illuminated by coherent beams: Polarization properties*

W. M. Farmer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(12) 1563-1570 (1973)

Two-Component Dual-Scatter Laser Doppler Velocimeter with Frequency Burst Signal Readout

D. B. Brayton, H. T. Kalb, and F. L. Crosswy
Appl. Opt. 12(6) 1145-1156 (1973)

Detection and Sizing of Small Particles in an Open Cavity Gas Laser

Burton G. Schuster and Robert Knollenberg
Appl. Opt. 11(7) 1515-1520 (1972)

Measured Light-Scattering Properties of Individual Aerosol Particles Compared to Mie Scattering Theory

R. G. Pinnick, J. M. Rosen, and D. J. Hofmann
Appl. Opt. 12(1) 37-41 (1973)