Abstract

For a number of years the use of graded-reflectance resonator optics has been advocated as a means of improving the overall efficiency of lidar systems. Initial efforts aimed at quantifying the degree of benefit to be expected have relied on the putative ability of such optics to impose a well-defined transverse description on the lidar transmitter output^1,2. While this approach has permitted a useful insight into the question at hand, it was nevertheless recognized that there were limits to this deterministic assumption which could only properly be addressed by means of a diffractive eigenmode treatment. The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of just such an analysis.

© 1995 Optical Society of America