Self-induced thermal distortion effects on target image quality.

Experimental results are reported that show the effects of the self-induced thermal lens due to a high power laser beam on imaging or tracking systems viewing along the same propagation path. The thermal distortion effects of a wind are simulated with a low power ( less, similar 3-W) CO(2) laser beam propagating through a cell of liquid CS(2) moving across the beam. The resulting image distortion includes a warping effect analogous to the deflection of the CO(2) beam, together with a pronounced demagnification of the central portion of the object. An active optical tracker is simulated with a He-Ne laser beam propagating collinearly with the CO(2) beam. The He-Ne beam pattern returned from a specular target is distorted and sharply confined to the outline of the crescent shaped CO(2) beam. Simple ray optics models are used to provide qualitative explanations for the experimental results.