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1 results

  • 8 - Optical Detection

  • Gary G. Gimmestad, Georgia Institute of Technology, David W. Roberts, MicroDynamics LLC
  • Book:
    Lidar Engineering
    Published online:
    16 February 2023
    Print publication:
    23 February 2023, pp 204-245

  • Summary

    This chapter begins with a brief review of electronic circuitry and terminology because optical detection and signal processing are in the realm of electrical engineering. A detailed discussion of analog detection follows, with circuitry including transimpedance amplifiers and equivalent circuits for analyzing noise and bandwidth. Two electronic noise sources are introduced, Johnson noise and amplifier noise, and their effects on SNR are modeled. Photon counting is then discussed in terms of its instrumentation, advantages, and limitations. The basic principles of coherent detection are elucidated through a mathematical derivation, and the advantages of coherent detection are shown: high SNR, optical background discrimination, and the measurement of Doppler shifts to sense winds. The main types of detectors used in lidar systems are then discussed, including intrinsic and PIN photodiodes, photomultipliers, avalanche photodiodes, and single-photon avalanche diodes. The advantages of internal detector gain for optimizing SNR are quantified.