Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A radiation to optical converter, comprising:a semiconductor substrate having first and second opposed surfaces, wherein the semiconductor substrate is formed of a direct band gap semiconductor;a first mirror formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate;a fixed transmission grating positioned adjacent to the first mirror formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; anda probe beam source positioned to provide a probe beam that is incident on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, passes through the semiconductor substrate, and is reflected back therethrough by the first mirror,wherein radiation from an external source passing through the fixed transmission grating is thereby modulated, the modulated radiation passing through the first mirror into the semiconductor substrate and producing a transient radiation induced grating therein, andwherein a portion of the probe beam passing through the semiconductor substrate is diffracted out of the probe beam by the transient grating. 2. The converter of claim 1, wherein the direct band gap semiconductor is a proton or neutron or ion damaged direct band gap semiconductor. 3. The converter of claim 1, wherein the direct band gap semiconductor is selected from GaAs, CdTe, Cd1-yZnyTe, ZnTe, InP InGaAsP, ZnSe, ZnO, TiO2, and GaP. 4. The converter of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate has a thickness of about 5-200 microns. 5. The converter of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate ic cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature. 6. The converter of claim 1, wherein the probe beam source is an optical or infrared source. 7. The converter of claim 6, wherein the probe beam source is an optical laser. 8. The converter of claim 1, wherein the probe beam source is tuned just below the band gap of the semiconductor substrate. 9. The converter of claim 1, further comprising a reference optical grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate and having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating. 10. The converter of claim 9, wherein the reference optical grating is an etched surface relief grating or ion implanted grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, the first mirror being formed on the etched surface relief grating or ion implanted grating. 11. The converter of claim 9, wherein the reference optical grating is a metallic phase shifting grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate over the first mirror. 12. The converter of claim 1, further comprising a second mirror formed on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, the second mirror being partly transmissive and partly reflective to the probe beam, thereby forming a Gires-Tournois etalon. 13. The converter of claim 12, wherein the first and second mirrors are dielectric mirrors. 14. The converter of claim 12, further comprising a reference optical grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate and having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating. 15. A radiation to optical converter apparatus, comprising:a radiation to optical converter of claim 1;external source imaging optics positioned to direct radiation from the external source onto the fixed transmission grating of the converter;diffracted beam imaging optics positioned to direct the diffracted probe beam to an imaging plane; andan image detector positioned at the imaging plane. 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the external source is an x-ray source, and the external source imaging optics comprises an x-ray pinhole camera. 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the external source is an optical source, and the external source imaging optics comprises one or more lenses. 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the diffracted beam imaging optics comprises a beam splitter mirror positioned between the probe beam source and the converter to change the direction of the diffracted beam, and at least one lens positioned after the beam splitter mirror to focus an image produced by the diffracted beam onto the imaging plane. 19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising a beam block positioned at the Fourier transform plane to block the zero order portion of he diffracted beam. 20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the image recoding device comprises a CCD or a photographic plate. 21. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the converter further comprises a reference optical grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate and having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating. 22. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the converter further comprises a second minor formed on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, the second mirror being partly transmissive and partly reflective to the probe beam, thereby forming Gires-Tournois etalon. 23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the converter further comprises a reference optical grating formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate and having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating. 24. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the diffracted beam imaging optics further comprises a reference grating. 25. A radiation to optical converter, comprising:a semiconductor substrate having first and second opposed surfaces, wherein the semiconductor substrate is formed of an indirect band gap semiconductor;a first mirror formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate;a fixed transmission grating positioned adjacent to the first mirror formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; anda probe beam source positioned to provide a probe beam that is incident on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, passes through the semiconductor substrate, and is reflected back therethrough by the first mirror,wherein radiation from an external source passing through the fixed transmission grating is thereby modulated the modulate radiation passing through the first mirror into the semiconductor substrate and producing a transient radiation induced grating therein, andwherein a portion of the probe beam passing through the semiconductor substrate is diffracted out of the probe beam by the transient grating. 26. The converter of claim 25, wherein e indirect band gap semiconductor is selected from Si and Ge. 27. A method of converting radiation from an external source to optical radiation, comprising:directing radiation from the external source onto a fixed transmission grating to modulate the radiation;passing the modulated radiation into a semiconductor substrate to produce a transient induced grating therein, wherein the semiconductor substrate is formed of a direct band gap semiconductor;directing a probe beam into the semiconductor substrate so that it travels twice through the semiconductor substrate and interacts with the transient grating to diffract a portion of the probe beam, wherein the probe beam travels twice through the semiconductor substrate b being reflected off a first minor on the substrate; andimaging diffracted portions of the probe beam. 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising forming the semiconductor substrate of a proton or neutron or ion damaged direct band gap semiconductor. 29. The method of claim 27, further comprising tuning the probe beam to just below the band gap of the semiconductor substrate. 30. The method of claim 27, further comprising providing a reference optical grating on the semiconductor substrate, the reference optical grating having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating. 31. The method of claim 27, further comprising providing a second minor on the opposed surface of the substrate from the first mirror to form an etalon. 32. The method of claim 31, further comprising providing a reference optical grating on the semiconductor substrate, the reference optical grating having the same spatial frequency and phase as the fixed grating.