Laser in-band IR countermeasures and assessment of laser dazzling effects on FPA sensor arrays

The effects of pulsed In-band IR OPO radiations on a thermal matrix imager are investigated using a versatile optical setup permitting different OPO beam sizes and where the imager is used without its native imaging lens. Dazzling effects are examined whether at fixed integration time and various radiant exposures or at fixed radiant power and variable integration time. There is evidence for the mitigation of the dazzling effect with increasing both the radiant power and the integration time. The nature of the scene, its contours, its contrast ratio, its aspect ratio are of major relevance in the dazzling process. Our results indicate that the IR imager enters a nonlinear regime when submitted to IR radiations and toggles to self-protection regime.