British BAE Systems has revealed that it is developing a work that uses laser pointer to temporarily adjust the atmospheric environment to improve the visual sensitivity to enemy targets, or to prevent high-energy laser weapon attacks. With the development of more and more powerful laser weapons, BAE Systems has studied the concept of "atmospheric lens for laser development". The concept uses lasers to change the ionosphere in the Earth’s atmosphere, thereby helping surveillance sensors better detect targets, or destroying laser weapons aimed at reconnaissance platforms.
This concept uses the Kerr effect, which means that when an electric field is applied to a substance, its refractive index will change. According to BAE Systems, high-speed pulsed lasers generate charges when they travel through the atmosphere, changing the ionosphere to a lens-like structure, allowing high-altitude reconnaissance sensors to see targets more clearly from outside the range of air defense missiles or air defense lasers. The company said that mirrors, glass lenses and Fresnel diffraction band plates can be reproduced in the atmosphere, and its physical properties of refraction, reflection and diffraction can be temporarily used.
Either, the propagation path of the electromagnetic wave can be changed by refraction, so that the incident wave is directed into different directions; or, the plasma "bubble" can be made by laser, and the propagation of the incident laser beam can be destroyed by reflection and diffraction. Professor Nick Crosimo, a technical expert at BAE Systems, said, "LDAL can create a huge lens in the atmosphere in front of the aircraft, which can make the very small sensors on the aircraft get much more light. This is a complete Reversible process. As soon as we stop emitting green laser pointer pulses, the atmosphere will return to normal and there will be no legacy effect."
BAE Systems believes that such a system will be available to battlefield commanders in the next 50 years. Other applications include radio astronomy, which can provide new solutions instead of building huge parabolic antennas for radio telescopes. The company's concept was developed by the company's Wharton factory in England. It has been carried out by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of the British Council of Science and Technology Facilities, a company specializing in optical sensors, and "Light" consulting company. Evaluation. Professor Crosimo said: "Working with some of the best scientific minds in the UK, we are able to synthesize emerging and disruptive technologies and change the future picture of potential military technologies in ways that were unimaginable just 5 to 10 years ago. ".