Multibeam transmitter for signal dynamic range reduction in incoherent lidar systems

A multibeam transmitter provides the flexibility to change the overlap function and range response function of monostatic incoherent lidar systems. A nearly flat range response and a close near-range coverage can be achieved simultaneously, even under different atmospheric conditions. Such a significant improvement in range response will solve the problem of detector overexposure by near-range atmosphere-backscattered radiation (which leads to nonlinear response, saturation, or even damage of the detector), and will significantly reduce the dynamic range of the detector output signal, thus reducing quantization error of the digitizer. Consequently, the accuracy of lidar measurements, especially that of differential absorption lidar measurements, will be improved.