Coherent detection of low light level pulses

Tesat has developed and tested a coherent receiver for low light level applications such as deep space laser communication or LIDAR. The receiver is a plug in replacement of the homodyne communication receiver used for the TESAT LEO-GEO Laser Communication Terminals. Test results will be presented and possible application scenarios will be discussed. In addition to that, single frequency seeder laser sources have been developed suitable for coherent detection systems at 1064 nm.