Abstract
Techniques for satellite laser ranging have historically employed high-energy pulsed lasers as the optical transmitter. The output power currently available from laser diodes and laser diode arrays makes them a viable alternative to the pulsed laser for ranging applications. We examine the modulation of a laser diode by a pseudonoise code which produces a cw ranging signal with equivalent average power to that of current pulsed systems. A maximum-likelihood receiver for estimating signal arrival time using ideal rectangular pulses is shown to be a correlation receiver. A Cramer-Rao bound on the range error is derived for a ranging system with Gaussian code pulses and a correlation receiver. Ranging performance is evaluated for a single cube-corner retroreflector and a tilted flat diffuse target. It is shown that range accuracy of the order of 1 cm is feasible.
© 1988 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Kwaifong E. Im and C. S. Gardner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(1) 143-156 (1986)
Kwaifong E. Im, Chester S. Gardner, James B. Abshire, and Jan F. McGarry
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4(5) 820-833 (1987)
Bin-Ming Tsai and Chester S. Gardner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2(5) 649-656 (1985)