Alexandrite Lidar Receiver

Abstract

Utah State University's responsibility to the U.S. Army Research Office and the DoD's DURIP Program was to design, and obtain from a vendor, an "Alexandrite Lidar Receiver". The chosen vendor, Orca Photonics, In. (Redmond, WA), in close collaboration with USU personnel, built a portable, computerized lidar system that not only is suitable as a receiver for a near IR alexandrite laser, but also contains an independent Nd: YAG laser tor standalone lidar operations at 532nm. The LRS-100 lidar delivered under this contract has two analog PMT receivers channels to detected both in daytime as well as at night. Though zenith observations are the typical operational mode of the Orca lidar, we also demonstrated off-zenith lidar measurements using a mirror beam director and a holographic transmission grating (HTG) on the receiving telescope ARO's satisfaction with the Orca lidar has led to funding for a separate USU contract to Orca (now completed under DURIP sponsorship) to add two digital (Photon counting) channels for greater sensitivity and range, particularly for nighttime observations. ORCA Photonics, Inc. has proved to be an excellent, responsive vendor for industry-university collaborations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA385770

Entities

People

  • Thomas D. Wilkerson

Organizations

  • Utah State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Autonomy
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Contracts
  • Data Acquisition
  • Detection
  • Laser Radar
  • Lasers
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Observation
  • Operating Systems
  • Photonics
  • Polarization
  • Remote Sensing
  • Sensitivity
  • Students
  • Universities
  • Yag Lasers

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Space