OPTICAL QUANTUM GENERATORS AND PROSPECTS FOR THEIR APPLICATION IN OPTICAL RANGEFINDERS,
Abstract
The major portion of the article is devoted to a review of the historical development, theory, and physical characteristics of solid, gas, and semiconductor lasers. The remainder is a discussion of their possible application in optical range finders. Basic requirements for lasers in optical range finders are listed. Lasers operating in the pulsed mode are not suitable at present, because short pulses with well-defined shape can not be produced with sufficient accuracy for time-of-flight measurements of distance. In general, solid and semiconductor lasers operating in the continuous mode are not suitable because of power and/or cooling requirements. Gas lasers operating in the infrared are also not suitable because of the high atmosphere absorption at these wavelengths. However, helium-neon lasers operating at 632.8 nanometers have been successfully applied in optical range finders for measuring distances up to 20-30 km. A description of these experiments is presented. A recombination gallium arsenide photodiode operating at about 0.9 micrometers has been applied in the topographic range finder GD-314, which measures distances up to 2 km. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 12, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0682464
Entities
People
- V. M. Nazarov
Organizations
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center