Monostatic all-fiber scanning LADAR system

A compact scanning LADAR system based on a fiber-coupled, monostatic configuration which transmits (TX) and receives (RX) through the same aperture has been developed. A small piezo-electric stripe actuator was used to resonantly vibrate a fiber cantilever tip and scan the transmitted near-single-mode optical beam and the cladding mode receiving aperture. When compared to conventional bi-static systems with polygon, galvo, or Risley-prism beam scanners, the described system offers several advantages: the inherent alignment of the receiver field-of-view (FOV) relative to the TX beam angle, small size and weight, and power efficiency. Optical alignment of the system was maintained at all ranges since there is no parallax between the TX beam and the receiver FOV. A position-sensing detector (PSD) was used to sense the instantaneous fiber tip position. The Si PSD operated in a two-photon absorption mode to detect the transmitted 1.5 mu m pulses. The prototype system collected 50,000 points per second with a 6 degrees full scan angle and a 27 mm clear aperture/40 mm focal length TX/RX lens, had a range precision of 4.7 mm, and was operated at a maximum range of 26 m. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America