Abstract

In order to overcome such limitations as resolution, receiver weight and response time associated with large heavy monolithic laser radar receivers, a significant amount of work^1-5 has been performed into the potential of array based systems to provide high resolution lightweight fast receivers. In order to achieve image resolution consistent with the overall size of the array, the amplitude and phase at each point in the array must be determined. As has been demonstrated in the microwave region^6,7, the problem of phase errors due to errors in detector positioning and variations in the reference wavefront that are associated with the heterodyne detection process used to determine the phase, can be overcome in an adaptive way prior to using the array for imaging.

© 1992 Optical Society of America