Large Non-Ambiguity Range and Precise Absolute Distance Measurement with Dual Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers

We employed a gold coated glass cover plate to fabricate dual compact free running fiber laser combs based LIDAR (light detection and ranging) system with tunable difference of repetition rates. Our study shows that the ranging precision is 0.4 μm and the non-ambiguity range is 2.1 m with averaging time of 0.4 s for the distance of 1.09 m by the time-of-flight method. The system with 1 kHz-high update rate and the large non-ambiguity range is potentially useful for manufacturing or machining application applied in absolute distance measurement.