Pulse Compression in Optical Radar

An analysis of the application of pulse-compression techniques in optical radar systems is presented. The particular case of pseudorandom on-off amplitude coding is chosen for ease of analysis. The roles of the siqnal and photodetector properties and the processing method are examined. The qualitative relationship between the concepts of coherent and incoherent integration in microwave radar and linear and nonlinear processing in optical radar is demonstrated, thus validating the application of pulse-compression techniques with optical signals. Finally, an experimental simulation of an optical rangefinder has been constructed to illustrate various findings of the analysis.