Light utilization in optical correlators

Abstract

An analysis is made of the overall light efficiency in a coherent optical correlator. The results are applied to a matched filter and an inverse filter. Kogelnik's coupled wave theory is applied to analyze the diffraction efficiency of a filter recorded on a high-efficiency phase medium such as dichromated gelatin. Experimental results are presented for a matched filter and out-of-focus spatial filter, and the former is compared to the theory with good agreement.