Broadband Photonic Signal Processing of LIDAR Noise Waveforms

We present a novel broadband photonic signal processor, capable of sensing and processing a wide variety of waveforms including analog optical noise, for coherent LIDAR range processing. The device relies on the spectral and spatial sensing capabilities of rare-earth ion doped crystals to perform correlative signal processing. The processed results are extracted using a highly-coherent, actively-stabilized low - power frequency-swept laser, allowing broadband information to be detected and digitized at low bandwidths with high dynamic range. Time-of-flight resolution of ∼450 ps, signal-to-noise ratios of > 40 dB and up to 1us delays are demonstrated using 8 ms long waveforms. The optical noise waveforms are created by modulating RF noise onto the carrier, using up to 6 Gbps pseudo noise coding and 2 GHz analog noise waveforms.