A method to enhance the SNR of pulsed heterodyne LADAR based on radio frequency modulation

The performance of conventional incoherent pulsed LADAR is limited by the emitting power of laser as well as the sensitivity of detector, which makes it hard to increase the operating range. In this paper, a set of pulsed heterodyne LADAR design is proposed by combining efficient radio frequency modulation in laser pulses and pulsed heterodyne detection. Finally, the SNR of this design is analyzed, which shows a superiority of 7 dB to 12 dB over conventional incoherent pulsed LADAR and a better appeal to long-range detection.