Application of fiber interferometer in coherent Doppler lidar

A novel coherent Doppler lidar (CDL) system based on single-mode fiber (SMF) components and instruments is presented to measure the speed of target. A fiber interferometer used in CDL system is reported. This fiber mixer is employed as a coherent receiver to resolve the shifts of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and mixing efficiency induced by backscattered field's wavefront error. For a certain wavelength, the maximum coupling efficiency between signal and SMF is determined by the ratio of pupil diameter to focal length of the coupling lens. The legible interference patterns and spectrum signals show that fiber interferometer is suitable to compensate for amplitude and phase vibrations. This robust coherent receiver can achieve improved CDL system performance with less transmitter power.