Self-contained eye-safe laser radar using an erbium-doped fiber laser

Thomas Arthur Driscoll; Dan J. Radecki; Nan E. Tindal; John P. Corriveau; Richard Denman

doi:10.1117/12.484167

3 July 2003 Self-contained eye-safe laser radar using an erbium-doped fiber laser

Thomas Arthur Driscoll, Dan J. Radecki, Nan E. Tindal, John P. Corriveau, Richard Denman

Proceedings Volume 4974, Advances in Fiber Lasers; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.484167
Event: High-Power Lasers and Applications, 2003, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

An Eye-safe Laser Radar has been developed under White Sands Missile Range sponsorship. The SEAL system, the Self-contained Eyesafe Autonomous Laser system, is designed to measure target position within a 0.5 meter box. Targets are augmented with Scotchlite for ranging out to 6 km and augmented with a retroreflector for targets out to 20 km. The data latency is less than 1.5 ms, and the position update rate is 1 kHz. The system is air-cooled, contained in a single 200-lb, 6-cubic-foot box, and uses less than 600 watts of prime power. The angle-angle-range data will be used to measure target dynamics and to control a tracking mount. The optical system is built around a diode-pumped, erbium-doped fiber laser rated at 1.5 watts average power at 10 kHz repetition rate with 25 nsec pulse duration. An 8 inch-diameter, F/2.84 telescope is relayed to a quadrant detector at F/0.85 giving a 5 mrad field of view. Two detectors have been evaluated, a Germanium PIN diode and an Intevac TE-IPD. The receiver electronics uses a DSP network of 6 SHARC processors to implement ranging and angle error algorithms along with an Optical AGC, including beam divergence/FOV control loops.Laboratory measurements of the laser characteristics, and system range and angle accuracies will be compared to simulations. Field measurements against actual targets will be presented.

Citation Download Citation

Thomas Arthur Driscoll, Dan J. Radecki, Nan E. Tindal, John P. Corriveau, and Richard Denman "Self-contained eye-safe laser radar using an erbium-doped fiber laser", Proc. SPIE 4974, Advances in Fiber Lasers, (3 July 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.484167

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