Acousto-optic heterodyne channelizer

Abstract

A heterodyne spectrum analysis AO channelizer is proposed. The basic theory of heterodyne spectrum analysis is described, and an interferometric optical system and an instantaneous photodetector array are introduced. The methods for designing a local reference signal are discussed. Using this AO channelizer a large dynamic range (>50 dB), large number of channels (>100) and high frequency resolution (25 kHz) can be achieved.