Ultra-Compact Doppler LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for Unmanned Aerial/Ground Vehicles

The availability of moderate power fiber lasers and amplifiers has made possible the demonstration of compact Laser Radar systems in the eye safe spectral region. These systems benefit primarily from the high repetition rates afforded by the ideal thermal management in optical fibers allowing very good optical beam and pulse fidelities. For un-manned airborne vehicles to become cost effective and have reliable performance they will require avionic systems for landing and take-off that will be insensitive to sudden weather changes. As a result a compact and rugged solution with a low entry cost is required to limit the number of crashes at landing and take off of UAVs. Under this SBIR we propose to demonstrate a multi-purpose (Doppler-DIAL-DAS), compact coherent detection system that will eventually be tunable in the important eye safe spectral range. This range is relevant for both air and ground vehicles since it affords relative eye safety. In particular we will demonstrate the feasibility of detecting wind-shears and simultaneously perform differential absorption measurements with an all-fiber based transmitter-receiver system. This approach will result in a compact, cost competitive Doppler Lidar system.