Fast electro-optic switching for coherent laser ranging and velocimetry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rapid, reliable electro-optic switch for coherent laser ranging and velocimetry, enabling high-speed beam steering in applications like lidar with precise target distance and velocity measurements.

Contribution

The work presents a monolithic, sub-microsecond electro-optic switch integrated into a lidar system, demonstrating fast, dynamic beam steering and coherent detection capabilities.

Findings

Achieved sub-microsecond switching speeds.

Demonstrated simultaneous range and velocity measurement.

Validated system performance in a laboratory lidar setup.

Abstract

The growth of 3D imaging across a range of sectors has driven a demand for high performance beam steering techniques. Fields as diverse as autonomous vehicles and medical imaging can benefit from a high speed, adaptable method of beam steering. We present a monolithic, sub-microsecond electro-optic switch as a solution satisfying the need for reliability, speed, dynamic addressability and compactness. Here we demonstrate a laboratory-scale, solid-state lidar pointing system, using the electro-optic switch to launch modulated coherent light into free space, and then to collect the reflected signal. We use coherent detection of the reflected light to simultaneously extract the range and axial velocity of targets at each of several electronically addressable output ports.