| A novel multifunction lidar system is investigated. The system described in this work is extremely compact, and versatile, and it shows great potential for use in lidar applications. Lidar systems are widely used to characterize and obtain information about a remote target. Characteristics such as velocity, distance, vibration frequency, molecular concentration, fluorescence, and imaging are commonly acquired with lidar. Traditionally lidar systems are dedicated to a single measurement application. The system described in this dissertation enables accurate measurement of several features of a remote target.;The multifunction lidar system is based on the use of a coherently locked, tunable dual frequency laser source. It is generated by exploiting the nonlinear dynamics of a semiconductor laser through a proper combination of optical injection strength and operating conditions. This dissertation illustrates the utilization of the nonlinear dynamics of single-mode semiconductor lasers for multiple applications in lidar detection.;In addition, a novel imaging technique is described and demonstrated. It is not based on the same semiconductor laser system, but instead utilizes an erbium doped fiber amplifier. The imaging technique enables a non-contact, non-invasive method of imaging without strict requirements on a stable laser source or complicated electronics. |
