Chaotic Lidar

摘要

A novel chaotic lidar (CLIDAR) system utilizing optical chaos has been investigated and demonstrated. Compared with conventional pseudo-random code-modulated continuous-wave lidars, CLIDAR has the advantages of very high range resolution and unambiguous correlation profile benefiting from the very broad bandwidth of the chaotic waveform used. In this paper, a CLIDAR system using an optically injected semiconductor laser as . the light source is studied both numerically and experimentally. The power spectra, phase portraits, time series, and correlations of the chaotic states obtained at different operating conditions are compared. Chaotic states with flat and smooth spectra are shown to have better performances. The correlation dimension and the largest positive Lyapunov exponent for each chaotic state are computed as well, where the relation between the complexity of chaotic states and peak sidelobe level is discussed. To show the feasibility of CLIDAR, proof-of-concept experiments, including range finding, two-dimensional imaging, and multiple-target detection, are demonstrated. A range resolution of 2 cm, which it is currently limited by the detection bandwidth of the real-time oscilloscope used, is achieved.