Lidar dynamic range compression by using a membrane mirror light shutter

A lidar system employing a membrane mirror light shutter, MMLS, for dynamic range compression is demonstrated in this paper. The use of the MMLS allows the dynamic range of the lidar to be compressed by more than 2 orders of magnitude and, at the same time, the strong near-field optical return is avoided. Important parameters for an MMLS used in lidar are described and their measurements in a lidar configuration are presented. The decompression in the lidar data retrieval caused by using the MMLS is discussed.