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13LD-O-12
LASER DIAGNOSTICS AND SPECTROSCOPY
*
ALT'22
Developing Compact LIDAR Systems: Size and Eye-Safety Matters
V.N. Lednev, M.Ya. Grishin, P.A. Sdvizhenskii, V.A. Zavozin, S.M. Pershin, A.F. Bunkin
Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia
lednev@kapella.gpi.ru
Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) systems were first suggested in early 1960-s when powerful pulsed lasers became available. However, large-sized, heavy and highly power consuming LIDAR systems required powerful aircraft vehicles to perform airborne remote sensing so the LIDAR technology was not widely used and mainly adopted for stationary systems. The progress in laser and detector production progress made it possible to develop compact and energy-efficient LIDAR systems. An eye-safety requirement is a mandatory condition for LIDAR application in real life so modern instruments should fulfil this requirement. A new generation of fully digital eye-safe LIDAR instrument was suggested in early 1990-s based on pulsed diode laser and single-photon avalanche photodiode [1]. Compact LIDAR development opens new perspectives for remote laser sensing of different objects like online control in agriculture [2] or aerosol studies in extraterrestial missions [3]. Here, we present the eye-safe digital LIDAR instrument operation principles as well as recent progress in its developments. Recent progress of compact LIDAR development to be installed at unmanned aircraft vehicles is discussed as well as LIDAR applications.
This work was supported by a grant of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (07515-2020-912) for the organization and development of a World-class research center "Photonics".
Fig.1 Compact fluorescence (a) and eye-safe (b) LIDAR systems developed at Prokhorov General Physics Institute of RAS. Compact LIDAR installed at a small drone (c) and during online monitoring of maize field (d).
[1] S.Pershin, et al. Spaceborn laser altimeter based on the single photon diode receiver and semiconductor laser transmitter, CLEO OSA vol. 10 p CFI1 (1991)
[2] Grishin, M. Ya, et al., Ultracompact Fluorescence Lidar Based on a Diode Laser (405 nm, 150 mW) for Remote Sensing of Wa-terbodies and the Underlying Surface from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Doklady Physics. vol. 66. No. 6. (2021)
[3] https://mars.nasa.gov/internal_resources/818/
