Resolution limits for time-of-flight imaging laser radar

In previous work we introduced a new metric for the image resolution volume that couples the spatial resolution with the range resolution. We showed from a quantum noise consideration that there is a constant volume resolution and that one can trade-off spatial resolution at the expense of range resolution, and vise-a-versa. This theory was developed for a heterodyne LADAR system. In this paper we extend our previous heterodyne LADAR system theory to develop a image resolution volume metric for time-of-flight LADAR system, where device parameters such as optical amplifier noise are included.