The impact of pulse parameter on modulated lidar performance

Modulated lidar is proved efficient to suppress backscatter noise and enhance target contrast. In this paper relationships between pulse parameters and performance of modulated lidar were fully analyzed. There are three key parameters for laser pulse: modulation frequency, modulation depth and pulse width. Theoretical models were built for the three parameters and they are analyzed both in time domain and in frequency domain. It is concluded from experiment results that modulated lidar reaches to its optimal performance when setting modulation frequency of laser pulse to 2GHz, modulation depth to 0.5 and pulse width between 10ns and 20ns.