SBIR-STTR Award

RAMAN LIDAR OPTICAL RADAR LASER RADAR RAMAN SPECTRA REMOTE CHEMICAL DETECTION Successful completion of ballistic missile defense engagement requires the verification of intercept and complete destruction of enemy warheads with non-negative impacts to defended areas. Current engagement operational concepts address kill assessment requirements mainly using radar surveillance of intended intercept regions within the battlespace. The creation of intercept debris clouds without the presence of objects large enough to represent functional warhead components would be classified as a confirmed kill. This kill assessment approach doesn't provide any information to missile defense battle management elements that the interceptor kill vehicle actually engaged a target that contained fissionable or fusionable material. Phase I will develop an innovative Raman lidar system to process the returns from high energy laser illumination of an intercept debris cloud to provide real-time measurements of the concentrations and dispersion patterns of fissionable and fusionable materials indicating the successful engagement of the intended target. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/

Potential Commercial Applications:
The application of this innovative technology allows our Raman lidar receiver to overcome the sensitivity problems that plagued conventional Raman receiver techniques. This innovative technology also permits faster signal processing, which results in finer range resolution. These highly effective Raman lidar are a fraction of the size, weight, and cost of current systems. The improved performance of Raman lidar can be applied to may other requirements to monitor the presence and measure the concentration of atmospheric components. These other applications include non-intrusive combustion monitoring, illegal drug detection, toxic chemical alert, and many others.

RAMAN LIDAR OPTICAL RADAR LASER RADAR RAMAN SPECTRA REMOTE CHEMICAL DETECTION Abstract: The spectral correlator receiver in Phase II will provide sensitivity for remote chemical detection for a variety of applications, including: Strategic Defense, conventional military, Special Operations, law enforcement, civil defense, and civilian commercial applications. Laser radar which utilizes this concept, could effectively and reliably verify that the warhead had been destroyed in the intercept of a ballistic missile and determine the type of warhead destroyed. This assessment would give an analysis of the chemical composition of the debris generated by the intercept and could map the disperal pattern of toxic debris. Phase II STTR program will convert the development of an innovative Raman lidar system into practical hardware that can provide realtime measurements of the concentration and dispersion patterns of fissionable and fusionable materials. This will be accomplished by the core technology development which will support a broad range of chemical detection.