Abstract

Signal characteristics in a coherent heterodyne laser radar system have been investigated with techniques that include autocorrelation of the rectified and smoothed detector output. Various experiments have been conducted with the scattering from a moving-belt sander. As the speed of the belt and the angle of incidence of the beam were varied the characteristic coherence time of the fluctuations changed in the manner expected from simple semi-intuitive calculations. However, in other investigations including change of focal position and aperture size at the transmitter the results are much less obvious. Their interpretation are discussed and related to other recently reported investigations.

© 1985 Optical Society of America