Multichannel acousto-optical spectrometer

Photonic Systems Incorporated is currently fabricating a Multichannel Acousto-Optical Spectrometer (MCAOS) for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This instrument will be used as a frequency channelized radiometer for radio astronomy spectroscopy. It will analyze the spectrum of four independent radio frequency (RF) channels simultaneously and has potential for eight to as many as sixteen channels. Each channel will resolve the RF spectrum to one megahertz within its 1000 megahertz band. Dynamic range exceeding 30 dB will be achieved by quantizing detector photo-charge to 12 bits and accumulating data for large periods of time. Long time integration requires an optical bench optimized for stability and the use of temperature stabilization. System drift due to speckle interference is minimized by using a novel polarization switching Bragg cell.