Range finding with continuous-wave chaotic laser train generated from laser diode with optical feedback is investigated theoretically. Chaotic laser is split into probe beam flighting to target and reference beam, and then, the distance of target can be calculated from the flight time obtained by correlating the time-delayed probe beam with the reference one. Effects of noise and waveform error on correlation performances for different chaotic states are investigated to study the system tolerance of environmental noise. Simultaneously, the effects of chaotic state characterized by the largest Lyapunov exponent and correlation dimension on correlation performances are demonstrated theoretically to select satisfying chaotic laser used as probe light. Simulated results indicate that ideal chaotic laser train should have high dimension and have smooth spectrum with broad bandwidth for ranging with high resolution. For the simulated system, ranging resolution within 1.5cm range independent of target location can be achieved using the chaotic lasers generated in middle of the chaos-generated regime of feedback level.

Date Published: 29 January 2007
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 6279, 27th International Congress on High-Speed Photography and Photonics, 627970 (29 January 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.725838

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6279:
27th International Congress on High-Speed Photography and Photonics
Xun Hou; Wei Zhao; Baoli Yao, Editor(s)