Product Details

Beam Control for Laser Systems / Second Edition includes engineering disciplines that permit pointing and tracking. These technologies are required for surveillance, imaging, and defensive systems. The first edition of Beam Control for Laser Systems used classical frequency- domain techniques to describe control systems. This second edition has retained the classical approach, while also including contemporaneous time-domain techniques. Chapters on optical fundamentals, least squares, and Kalman filtering have been added. The book contains major beam control topics that have been found useful during the 50-year lifetime of laser systems. The material is presented in a tutorial fashion such that scientists and engineers with a BS degree should be able to follow the derivations. The companion CD includes solutions to exercises, atmospheric programs, MATLAB solutions to examples, and data analysis routines.

Authors

Paul Merritt has worked on laser systems for over 40 years. He received his PhD from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in mechanical engineering in 1974 and began working at the Airborne Laser Laboratory the same year. He continued in civil service positions at the Air Force Research Laboratory for most of his career, but also worked for Hughes Aircraft and Boeing-SVS, as well as teaching control classes for several years at UNM.

Mark Spencer has 4 years of experience past his PhD, and is currently Research Physicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate (AFRL/ RD) and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Optical Sciences and Engineering (OSE), Department of Engineering Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). He obtained his PhD in OSE from AFIT with several courses in control theory, one of which was taught from a draft form of the first edition of the current book.

Please see the Preface for more details on content of this book.