Heterodyne ladar system efficiency enhancement using single-mode optical fiber mixers

Donald K. Jacob; Martin B. Mark; Bradley D. Duncan

doi:10.1117/12.213594

1 November 1995 Heterodyne ladar system efficiency enhancement using single-mode optical fiber mixers

Donald K. Jacob, Martin B. Mark, Bradley D. Duncan

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 34, Issue 11, (November 1995). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.213594

Abstract

A theoretical performance analysis of a heterodyne ladar system incorporating a single-rnode fiber receiver has been perforrned. For our purposes, the perforrnance parameters of interest are the coupling and mixing efficiency of the ladar receiver, as they relate to the overall system carrier-to-noise ratio. For a receiver incorporating a single-mode fiber mixer, the received and local-oscillator fields are matched both spatially and temporally at the detector, yielding 100% mixing efficiency. We have therefore focused our efforts on determining an expression for the efficiency with which a diffuse return from a purely speckle target can be coupled into the receiving leg of a monostatic, untruncated cw ladar system. Through numerical analysis, the expected coupling efficiency for a ladar system with negligible truncation of the transmit beam has been determined to be 30.6%.

Citation Download Citation

Donald K. Jacob, Martin B. Mark, and Bradley D. Duncan "Heterodyne ladar system efficiency enhancement using single-mode optical fiber mixers," Optical Engineering 34(11), (1 November 1995). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.213594

Published: 1 November 1995

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE