Improvement of highly sensitive lidar with a thumb-sized sensor-head built using an optical fiber preamplifier

Daisuke Inoue; Tadashi Ichikawa; Hiroyuki Matsubara; Xueon Mao; Mitsutoshi Maeda; Chie Nagashima; Manabu Kagami

doi:10.1117/12.920596

14 May 2012 Improvement of highly sensitive lidar with a thumb-sized sensor-head built using an optical fiber preamplifier

Daisuke Inoue, Tadashi Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Matsubara, Xueon Mao, Mitsutoshi Maeda, Chie Nagashima, Manabu Kagami

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8379, Laser Radar Technology and Applications XVII; 83790X (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.920596
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2012, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Abstract

We have developed a LIDAR system with a sensor head which, although it includes a scanning mechanism, is less than 20 cc in size. The system is not only small, but is also highly sensitive. Our LIDAR system is based on time-of-flight measurements, and incorporates an optical fiber. The main feature of our system is the utilization of optical amplifiers for both the transmitter and the receiver, and the optical amplifiers enable us to exceed the detection limit set by thermal noise. In conventional LIDAR systems the detection limit is determined by the thermal noise, because the avalanche photo-diodes (APD) and trans-impedance amplifiers (TIA) that they use detect the received signals directly. In the case of our LIDAR system, the received signal is amplified by an optical fiber amplifier before reaching the photo diode and the TIA. Therefore, our LIDAR system boosts the signal level before the weak incoming signal is depleted by thermal noise. There are conditions under which the noise figure for the combination of an optical fiber amplifier and a photo diode is superior to the noise figure for an avalanche photo diode. We optimized the gains of the optical fiber amplifier and the TIA in our LIDAR system such that it would be capable of detecting a single photon. As a result, the detection limit of our system is determined by shot noise. We have previously demonstrated optical pre-amplified LIDAR with a perfect co-axial optical system[1]. For this we used a variable optical attenuator to remove internal reflection from the transmission and receiving lenses. However, the optical attenuator had an insertion loss of 6dB which reduced the sensitivity of the LIDAR. We re-designed the optical system such that it was semi-co-axial and removed the variable optical attenuator. As a result, we succeeded in scanning up to a range of 80 m. This small and highly sensitive measurement technology shows great potential for use in LIDAR.

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Daisuke Inoue, Tadashi Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Matsubara, Xueon Mao, Mitsutoshi Maeda, Chie Nagashima, and Manabu Kagami "Improvement of highly sensitive lidar with a thumb-sized sensor-head built using an optical fiber preamplifier", Proc. SPIE 8379, Laser Radar Technology and Applications XVII, 83790X (14 May 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.920596

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