Coherent differential absorption lidar measurements of CO2

A differential absorption lidar has been built to measure CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The transmitter is a pulsed single-frequency Ho:Tm:YLF laser at a 2.05-microm wavelength. A coherent heterodyne receiver was used to achieve sensitive detection, with the additional capability for wind profiling by a Doppler technique. Signal processing includes an algorithm for power measurement of a heterodyne signal. Results show a precision of the CO2 concentration measurement of 1%-2% 1sigma standard deviation over column lengths ranging from 1.2 to 2.8 km by an average of 1000 pulse pairs. A preliminary assessment of instrument sensitivity was made with an 8-h-long measurement set, along with correlative measurements with an in situ sensor, to determine that a CO2 trend could be detected.     

Coherent Doppler lidar signal covariance including wind shear and wind turbulence

The performance of a coherent Doppler lidar is determined by the statistics of the coherent Doppler signal. The derivation and calculation of the covariance of the Doppler lidar signal for random atmospheric wind fields and wind shear are presented. The signal parameters are defined for a general coherent Doppler lidar system in terms of the atmospheric parameters. There are two distinct physical regimes: one in which the transmitted pulse determines the signal statistics and the other in which the wind field and the atmospheric parameters dominate the signal statistics. When the wind fields dominate the signal statistics, Doppler lidar data are nonstationary and the signal correlation time is proportional to the operating wavelength of the lidar. The signal covariance is derived for signal-shot and multiple-shot conditions. For a single shot, the parameters of the signal covariance depend on the random, instantaneous atmospheric parameters. For multiple shots, various levels of ensemble averaging over the t emporal scales of the atmospheric processes are required. The wind turbulence is described by a Kolmogorov spectrum with an outer scale of turbulence. The effects of the wind turbulence are demonstrated with calculations for a horizontal propagation path in the atmospheric surface layer.     

Multigigahertz range-Doppler correlative signal processing in optical memory crystals

Analog optical signal processing of complex radio-frequency signals for range-Doppler radar information is theoretically described and experimentally demonstrated using crystalline optical memory materials and off-the-shelf photonic components. A model of the range-Doppler processing capability of the memory material for the case of single-target detection is presented. Radarlike signals were emulated and processed by the memory material; they consisted of broadband (> 1 GHz), spread-spectrum, pseudorandom noise sequences of 512 bits in length, which were binary phase-shift keyed on a 1.9 GHz carrier and repeated at 100 kHz over 7.5 ms. Delay (range) resolution of 8 ns and Doppler resolution of 130 Hz over 100 kHz were demonstrated.     

Coherent Doppler lidar signal spectrum with wind turbulence

The average signal spectrum (periodogram) for coherent Doppler lidar is calculated for a turbulent wind field. Simple approximations are compared with the exact calculation. The effects of random errors in the zero velocity reference, the effects of averaging spectral estimates by use of multiple lidar pulses, and the effects of the range dependence of the lidar signal power over the range gate are included. For high spatial resolution measurements the lidar signal power is concentrated around one spectral estimate (spectral bin), and correct interpretation of the contribution from turbulence is difficult because of the effects of spectral leakage. For range gates that are larger than the lidar pulse volume, the signal power is contained in many spectral bins and the effects of turbulence can be determined accurately for constant signal power over the range gate and for the far-field range dependence of the signal power.     

Reduction of the pulse spike-cut error in Fourier-deconvolved lidar profiles

A simple approach is analyzed and applied to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Doppler lidar data to reduce the error in Fourier-deconvolved lidar profiles that is caused by spike-cut uncertainty in the laser pulse shape, i.e., uncertainty of the type of not well-recorded (cut, missed) pulse spikes. Such a type of uncertainty is intrinsic to the case of TE (TEA) CO(2) laser transmitters. This approach requires only an estimate of the spike area to be known. The result from the analytical estimation of error reduction is in agreement with the results from the NOAA lidar data processing and from computer simulation.     

Chirp-pulse-compression three-dimensional lidar imager with fiber optics

A coherent three-dimensional (angle-angle-range) lidar imager using a master-oscillator-power-amplifier concept and operating at a wavelength of 1.5 microm with chirp-pulse compression is described. A fiber-optic delay line in the local oscillator path enables a single continuous-wave semiconductor laser source with a modulated drive waveform to generate both the constant-frequency local oscillator and the frequency chirp. A portion of this chirp is gated out and amplified by a two-stage fiber amplifier. The digitized return signal was compressed by cross correlating it with a sample of the outgoing pulse. In this way a 350-ns, 10-microJ pulse with a 250-MHz frequency sweep is compressed to a width of approximately 8 ns. With a 25-mm output aperture, the lidar has been used to produce three-dimensional images of hard targets out to a range of approximately 2 km with near-diffraction-limited angular resolution and submeter range resolution.     

Simulation of laser propagation in a turbulent atmosphere

The split-step Fourier-transform algorithm for numerical simulation of wave propagation in a turbulent atmosphere is refined to correctly include the effects of large-scale phase fluctuations that are important for imaging problems and many beam-wave problems such as focused laser beams and beam spreading. The results of the improved algorithm are similar to the results of the traditional algorithm for the performance of coherent Doppler lidar and for plane-wave intensity statistics because the effects of large-scale turbulence are less important. The series solution for coherent Doppler lidar performance converges slowly to the results from simulation.     

ISICL: In situ coherent lidar for particle detection in semiconductor-processing equipment

A scanning coherent lidar (laser radar) for detecting and mapping isolated submicrometer particles in hostile or inaccessible regions such as plasma chambers, ovens, tanks, and pipes is described. The sensor uses a noise-canceled diode laser homodyne interferometer of novel design that is insensitive to misalignment, runs at the quantum limit, and requires just one access window. At a false-count rate of 10(-5)Hz, the sensor needs 50 photons to detect a particle. A combination of techniques makes the system immune to stray light or laser light scattered from the chamber walls, though these other light sources may be 10(6) times more intense than the desired signal.     

Theoretical and experimental investigations of injection-locked signal extraction of Tm:YAG laser

Injection-seeded is an effective method to obtain high-power pulsed laser with pure spectrum, which is useful to be the laser source of a coherent Doppler LIDAR or a differential absorption LIDAR. In order to achieve the useful injection-locked signal, mode matching between master laser and slave laser is necessary. In this paper, various factors influencing on the extraction of injection-locked signal are analyzed theoretically. Then, experiments on an injection-seeded Tm:YAG laser are carried on, and injection-locked signal is extracted successfully. Moreover, an injection-seeded Tm:YAG laser is achieved, with pulsed single-frequency at 2013 nm, output energy of 3.16 mJ, and pulse width of 238.7 ns, at a repetition rate of 100 Hz.     

On an approach for improving the range resolution of pulsed coherent Doppler lidars

As a result of an analysis of the autocovariance of the complex heterodyne lidar signal, some general-enough inverse techniques (algorithms) are derived for recovering with high range resolution, below the sensing pulse length, of Doppler-velocity profiles in the atmosphere. Unlike our preceding works, it is assumed here that the laser pulses can have arbitrary fluctuating shape. The presence is also supposed of possible regular, arbitrary in form, intrapulse frequency deviations (chirp) and random frequency, phase and radial (Doppler)-velocity fluctuations. The algorithm performance and efficiency are studied and illustrated by computer simulations, taking into account the influence of the chirp and various random factors such as additive noise, pulse-shape fluctuations and radial-velocity fluctuations. It is shown that the algorithms developed allow the Doppler-velocity profiles to be determined with a considerably shorter resolution interval compared with the pulse length, at a reasonable number of signal realizations (laser shots) and appropriate data processing to reduce the statistical error due to the random factors.     

Coherent imaging with two-dimensional focal-plane arrays: design and applications

Scanned, single-channel optical heterodyne detection has been used in a variety of lidar applications from ranging and velocity measurements to differential absorption spectroscopy. We describe the design of a coherent camera system that is based on a two-dimensional staring array of heterodyne receivers for coherent imaging applications. Experimental results with a single HgCdTe detector translated in the image plane to form a synthetic two-dimensional array demonstrate the ability to obtain passive heterodyne images of chemical vapor plumes that are invisible to normal video infrared cameras. We describe active heterodyne imaging experiments with use of focal-plane arrays that yield hard-body Doppler lidar images and also demonstrate spatial averaging to reduce speckle effects in static coherent images.     

Laser Doppler field sensor for high resolution flow velocity imaging without camera

In this paper we present a laser sensor for highly spatially resolved flow imaging without using a camera. The sensor is an extension of the principle of laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). Instead of a parallel fringe system, diverging and converging fringes are employed. This method facilitates the determination of the tracer particle position within the measurement volume and leads to an increased spatial and velocity resolution compared to conventional LDA. Using a total number of four fringe systems the flow is resolved in two spatial dimensions and the orthogonal velocity component. Since no camera is used, the resolution of the sensor is not influenced by pixel size effects. A spatial resolution of 4 microm in the x direction and 16 microm in the y direction and a relative velocity resolution of 1x10(-3) have been demonstrated up to now. As a first application we present the velocity measurement of an injection nozzle flow. The sensor is also highly suitable for applications in nano- and microfluidics, e.g., for the measurement of flow rates.     

Special relativity corrections for space-based lidars

The theory of special relativity is used to analyze some of the physical phenomena associated with space-based coherent Doppler lidars aimed at Earth and the atmosphere. Two important cases of diffuse scattering and retroreflection by lidar targets are treated. For the case of diffuse scattering, we show that for a coaligned transmitter and receiver on the moving satellite, there is no angle between transmitted and returned radiation. However, the ray that enters the receiver does not correspond to a retroreflected ray by the target. For the retroreflection case there is misalignment between the transmitted ray and the received ray. In addition, the Doppler shift in the frequency and the amount of tip for the receiver aperture when needed are calculated. The error in estimating wind because of the Doppler shift in the frequency due to special relativity effects is examined. The results are then applied to a proposed space-based pulsed coherent Doppler lidar at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center for wind and aerosol backscatter measurements. The lidar uses an orbiting spacecraft with a pulsed laser source and measures the Doppler shift between the transmitted and the received frequencies to determine the atmospheric wind velocities. We show that the special relativity effects are small for the proposed system.     

Coherent Doppler lidar measurements of winds in the weak signal regime

In the weak signal regime coherent Doppler lidar velocity estimates are characterized by a localized distribution around the true mean velocity and a uniform distribution of random outliers over the velocity search space. The performance of velocity estimators is defined by the standard deviation of the good estimates around the true mean velocity and the fraction of random outliers. The quality of velocity estimates is improved with pulse accumulation. The performance of velocity estimates from two different coherent Doppler lidars in the weak signal regime is compared with the predictions of computer simulations for pulse accumulation from 1 to 100 pulses.     

Real-time tracking of time-varying velocity using a self-mixing laser diode

A new method is proposed for estimating the time-varying velocity of a moving target with a low-cost laser sensor using optical feedback interferometry. A new algorithm is proposed to track velocity variations from real-time analysis of the output signal of a self-mixing laser diode. This signal is strongly corrupted by a multiplicative noise caused by the speckle effect, which occurs very often with noncooperative targets used in many industrial applications. The proposed signal processing method is based on a second order adaptive linear predictor filter, which enables us to track the digital instantaneous Doppler frequency, which is proportional to the velocity. A model of the laser diode output signal is proposed, and it is shown that the sensor and its associated algorithm have a global first-order lowpass transfer function with a cutoff frequency expressed as a function of the speckle perturbations, the signal to noise ratio and the mean Doppler frequency. Numerical as well as experimental results illustrate the properties of this sensor.     

Fabry-Perot interferometer based Mie Doppler lidar for low tropospheric wind observation

Similar in principle to recent implementations of a lidar system at 355 nm [Opt. Lett. 25, 1231 (2000), Appl. Opt. 44, 6023 (2005)], an incoherent-detection Mie Doppler wind lidar at 1064 nm was developed and deployed in 2005 [Opt. Rev. 12, 409 (2005)] for wind measurements in the low troposphere, taking advantage of aerosol scattering for signal enhancement. We present a number of improvements made to the original 1064 nm system to increase its robustness for long-period operation. These include a multimode fiber for receiving the reference signal, a mode scrambler to allow uniform illumination over the Fabry-Perot interferometer, and a fast scannable Fabry-Perot interferometer for calibration and for the determination of outgoing laser frequency during the wind observation. With these improvements in stability, the standard deviation of peak transmission and FWHM of the Fabry-Perot interferometer was determined to be 0.49% and 0.36%, respectively. The lidar wind measurements were validated within a dynamic range of +/-40 m/s. Comparison experiments with both wind profiler radar and Vaisala wiresonde show good agreement with expected observation error. An example of 24 h continuous observations of wind field and aerosol backscatter coefficients in the boundary layer with 1 min and 30 m temporal and spatial resolution and 3 m/s tolerated wind velocity error is presented and fully demonstrates the stability and robustness of this lidar.     

Using the spectral asymmetry of TEA CO2 laser pulses to determine the Doppler-shift sign in coherent lidars with low frequency stability

We develop a method for determinating the relative positions of the lidar transmitter (LT) and the local oscillator (LO) frequencies in Doppler CO(2) lidars. It uses the weak spectral asymmetry of TEA CO(2) laser pulses, defined by a number of secondary peaks at the high-frequency side of the main spectrum peak. Depending on the sign of the beat frequency, these peaks may appear in the demodulated spectrum at either the high- or the low-frequency side. Each laser pulse spectrum is compared with reference spectra with two types of asymmetry, with the cross-correlation coefficients used as criteria. The performance of the method at different values of signal-to-noise ratio is analyzed numerically. The method is also applied to raw data from the lidar reference channel and demonstrates good performance at noise levels lower than the secondary peaks in the pulse spectrum or at a signal-to-noise ratio of >/=20 dB. Application of the pulse spectrum asymmetry for lidar frequency stabilization is analyzed. Lidar operation without frequency stabilization is considered as well. The method offers a simple Doppler lidar hardware for the creation of low-cost coherent lidars, velocimeters-rangefinders, etc.     

Ultraviolet high-spectral-resolution Doppler lidar for measuring wind field and aerosol optical properties

An ultraviolet incoherent Doppler lidar that incorporates the high-spectral-resolution (HSR) technique has been developed for measuring the wind field and aerosol optical properties in the troposphere. An injection seeded and tripled Nd:YAG laser at an ultraviolet wavelength of 355 nm was used in the lidar system. The HRS technique can resolve the aerosol Mie backscatter and the molecular Rayleigh backscatter to derive the signal components. By detecting the Mie backscatter, a great increase in the Doppler filter sensitivity was realized compared to the conventional incoherent Doppler lidars that detected the Rayleigh backscatter. The wind velocity distribution in a two-dimensional cross section was measured. By using the HSR technique, multifunction and absolute value measurements were realized for aerosol extinction, and volume backscatter coefficients; the laser beam transmittance, the lidar ratio, and the backscatter ratio are derived from these measurements.     

雷达调频编码脉冲信号的设计与处理

现代雷达为获得较高的距离分辨力通常采用编码频率脉冲串信号和步进频率脉冲串信号,但都存在数据率低和较为严重的距离-多普勒耦合问题。在研究这两种信号特点的基础上,提出了调频编码脉冲信号形式并给出了相应的信号处理方法。经仿真对比可见,该信号形式及其处理方法能同时解决步进调频信号高距离-多普勒耦合、低数据率两大问题,具有较好的联合分辨力。