A lidar system which includes one or more light sources to produce one or more optical signals and a demultiplexer to separate the one or more optical signals into a plurality of sub-portions which may be distributed to a plurality of sensor heads. The sensor heads emit the sub-portions of the one or more optical signals into a plurality of fields of view and to detect reflected or scattered light from the fields of view. The lidar system also includes one or more optical amplifiers and one or more filters to reduce amplified spontaneous emission produced by the one or more optical amplifiers.

A lidar system with a light source to emit a pulse of light into a field of view and a receiver to detect a return pulse of light which is reflected or scattered by a target in the field of view. The receiver may include an avalanche photodiode to generate an electrical-current pulse corresponding to the return pulse and a transimpedance amplifier to produce a voltage pulse that corresponds to the electrical-current pulse. A voltage amplifier may amplify the voltage pulse and a comparator may produce an edge signal when the amplified voltage pulse exceeds a threshold. A time-to-digital converter may determine a time interval based on an emission time of the pulse of light and based on the edge signal. A processor may determine a distance to the target using the time interval.

A lidar system which includes one or more light sources to produce one or more optical signals and a demultiplexer to separate the one or more optical signals into a plurality of sub-portions which may be distributed to a plurality of sensor heads. The sensor heads emit the sub-portions of the one or more optical signals into a plurality of fields of view and to detect reflected or scattered light from the fields of view. The lidar system also includes one or more optical amplifiers and one or more filters to reduce amplified spontaneous emission produced by the one or more optical amplifiers.

A lidar system with a seed laser to produce seed pulses with wavelengths between approximately 1400 nm and 2050 nm. A first amplifier amplifies the seed pulses to produce amplified seed pulses and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). An optical filter removes at least a portion of the ASE. A second amplifier amplifies the seed pulses to produce output pulses having a repetition frequency less than or equal to 100 MHz, a duration less than or equal to 20 nanoseconds, a duty cycle less than or equal to 1%, an energy greater than or equal to 10 nanojoules, a peak power greater than or equal to 1 watt, and an average power less than or equal to 50 watts, the ASE comprising less than or equal to 25% of the average power. A sensor head directs the output pulses into a field of view and detects reflected light therefrom.

In one embodiment, a lidar system includes a light source configured to emit pulses of light. The lidar system also includes multiple optical links and multiple sensor heads. Each optical link couples the light source to a corresponding sensor head, and each optical link is configured to convey at least a portion of the emitted pulses of light from the light source to the corresponding sensor head. Each sensor head includes a scanner configured to scan pulses of light across a field of regard of the sensor head, where the scanned pulses of light include the portion of the emitted pulses of light conveyed from the light source to the sensor head by the corresponding optical link. Each sensor head also includes a receiver configured to detect at least a portion of the scanned pulses of light scattered or reflected by a target located downrange from the sensor head.

In one embodiment, a laser system includes a seed laser configured to produce optical seed pulses. The laser system also includes a first fiber-optic amplifier configured to amplify the seed pulses by a first amplifier gain to produce a first-amplifier output that includes amplified seed pulses and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The laser system further includes a first optical filter configured to remove from the first-amplifier output an amount of the ASE. The laser system also includes a second fiber-optic amplifier configured to receive the amplified seed pulses from the first optical filter and amplify the received pulses by a second amplifier gain to produce output pulses. The output pulses have output-pulse characteristics that include: a pulse repetition frequency of less than or equal to 100 MHz; a pulse duration of less than or equal to 20 nanoseconds; and a duty cycle of less than or equal to 1%.

A laser pulse modulation device is disclosed and includes a first laser source, a second laser source, and a polarizing beam splitter. The first laser source is used to generate a first linearly-polarized pulsed laser beam which oscillates in a direction parallel to a propagation direction thereof. The second laser source is used to generate a second linearly-polarized pulsed laser beam which oscillates in a direction perpendicular to a propagation direction thereof. The polarizing beam splitter is used to overlay the first linearly-polarized pulsed laser beam and the second linearly-polarized pulsed laser beam to form a first combined pulsed laser beam.

There is presented a method of for generating a compressed optical pulse (112) comprising emitting from a wavelength tunable microcavity laser system (102), comprising an optical cavity (104) with a mechanically adjustable cavity length (L), a primary optical pulse (111) having a primary temporal width (T1) while adjusting the optical cavity length (L) so that said primary optical pulse comprises temporally separated photons of different wavelengths, and transmitting said pulse through a dispersive medium (114), so as to generate a compressed optical pulse (112) with a secondary temporal width (T2), wherein the secondary temporal width (T2) is smaller than the primary temporal width (T1).

System for converting relatively long pulses from rep-rate variable ultrafast optical sources to shorter, high-energy pulses suitable for sources in high-energy ultrafast lasers. Fibers with positive group velocity dispersion (GVD) and self phase modulation are advantageously employed with the optical sources. These systems take advantage of the need for higher pulse energies at lower repetition rates so that such sources can be cost effective.

A method of generating ultrashort pulses with wavelengths greater than 2 m comprising a short pulse diode laser or fiber laser operating at a wavelength of 1 m or greater with a pulse width of 10 ps or greater, one or more amplification stages to increase the peak power of the pulsed source, a nonlinear fiber stage whereby the dispersion of the nonlinear fiber is anomalous at the pulsed source wavelength such that the fiber breaks up the pulse into a series of sub-ps pulse train through modulation instability which may be seeded by spontaneous noise which are then wavelength shifted in one or more stages by soliton self frequency shift in anomalous dispersion fiber or Raman in normal dispersion fiber and amplified in one or more stages to generate a high peak power ultrashort pulse (<1 ps) source at a wavelength of 2.4 m or greater.