Broadband microwave imaging with spectral hole burning for squint compensation

We present an optical approach to 1-D broadband microwave imaging. The imager uses a Fourier optical beamformer to generate a squinted broadband image which is then spectrally resolved by burning a spatial distribution (an image) of spectral signals into a spectral-hole burning material. This spatial-spectral image corresponds to the spectral content of the image at each resolveable spatial point. These narrowband images may be sequentially read out with a chirped laser, scaled to compensate for beam squint, and summed to form a broadband microwave image.