Single detector polarization lidar for atmospheric studies

Mohammed Sharukh; Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada; Rafiq Ayub

doi:10.1117/12.2542828

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12 November 2019 Single detector polarization lidar for atmospheric studies

Mohammed Sharukh, Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada, Rafiq Ayub

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Proceedings Volume 11197, SPIE Future Sensing Technologies; 1119713 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2542828
Event: SPIE Future Sensing Technologies, 2019, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

We constructed a polarization lidar system with single detector for atmospheric studies. The lidar employs a rotating polarizer in the optical part of the lidar receiver. The rotating polarizer contains a Glan Thomson prism which is used to separate the p- and s- components of incoming light. The rotation of polarizer is controlled through a stepper motor controller. The lidar contains a trigger unit, which is an integral part of lidar that controls the timing of rotation of polarizer and also the sequence of lidar signal acquisition. The integrated trigger unit is synchronized with laser Q– switch pulse and provides polarization discrimination in the incoming light with high degree angular alignment. The lidar uses an Nd:YAG pulsed laser for probing the atmosphere and is operated at low repetition rate to retrieve the coand cross polarized signal components from the single detector. Using the lidar setup, we derived the range resolved depolarization measurements of tropical cirrus at the second harmonic wavelength of Nd:YAG laser.

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Mohammed Sharukh, Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada, and Rafiq Ayub "Single detector polarization lidar for atmospheric studies", Proc. SPIE 11197, SPIE Future Sensing Technologies, 1119713 (12 November 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2542828

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