Abstract

A two-mode CO₂ laser is used as transmitter in a 10-µm heterodyne Doppler lidar (HDL) to take advantage of a spectral diversity technique, i.e., independent realizations obtained with different spectral components. The objective is to improve the properties (i.e., less variance) of power returns from a hard target. The statistical properties are presented first for a broad-spectrum laser transmitter and then for a two-mode laser transmitter. The experimental results for a cooperative diffuse hard target show that the return signals for a frequency separation Δf = 15 MHz can be decorrelated, depending on the angle of incidence and the target roughness. The experimental results show that the spectral diversity technique improves the performance of the HDL.

© 2000 Optical Society of America

Four-element receiver for pulsed 10-µm heterodyne Doppler lidar

Xavier Favreau, Arnaud Delaval, Pierre H. Flamant, Alain Dabas, and Patricia Delville
Appl. Opt. 39(15) 2441-2448 (2000)

Effectiveness of simultaneous independent realizations at low carrier-to-noise ratio to improve heterodyne Doppler lidar performance. II. Experimental results

Gaspard Guérit, Philippe Drobinski, Béatrice Augère, and Pierre H. Flamant
Appl. Opt. 41(36) 7510-7515 (2002)

Effectiveness of simultaneous independent realizations at low carrier-to-noise ratio to improve heterodyne Doppler lidar performance. I. Theory and numerical simulations

Gaspard Guérit, Philippe Drobinski, Pierre H. Flamant, and Jean-Pierre Cariou
Appl. Opt. 41(12) 2232-2239 (2002)

Heterodyne lidar returns in the turbulent atmosphere: performance evaluation of simulated systems

Aniceto Belmonte and Barry J. Rye
Appl. Opt. 39(15) 2401-2411 (2000)

Evidence for speckle effects on pulsed CO₂ lidar signal returns from remote targets

Pierre H. Flamant, Robert T. Menzies, and Michael J. Kavaya
Appl. Opt. 23(9) 1412-1417 (1984)