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Sensitivity Improvement Of A 1-Μm Ladar System Incorporating An Active Optical Fiber Preamplifier, Michael S. Salisbury, Paul F. Mcmanamon, Bradley D. Duncan
Sensitivity Improvement Of A 1-Μm Ladar System Incorporating An Active Optical Fiber Preamplifier, Michael S. Salisbury, Paul F. Mcmanamon, Bradley D. Duncan
Bradley D. Duncan
In an effort to increase the SNR of a continuous wave, 1-μm all solid state ladar system, a rare-earth-doped optical fiber amplifier is investigated as a preamplifier for ladar return signals. The experimental system is detailed and a theoretical analysis of the fiber amplifier's effect on both heterodyne and direct detection schemes is provided. Beginning with the optical powers incident on the detector, the signal and noises are analyzed, through the detector electronics, to predict the SNR. The SNR is then plotted as a function of the return signal power, and a SNR threshold is defined to determine a minimum …