Laser range finder approach based on a fieldable electro-optic dual optical frequency comb: a proof of concept

In this paper a new laser range finder approach is presented. It is based on a fan of beams of different optical frequencies that are projected to the target. The detected back-reflected beams contain frequency-encoded information about its reflection angles, which are used for the calculation of the range by means of triangulation methods. The fan of beams is generated from a fieldable electro-optic dual optical frequency comb generator and a diffractive optical system, without any moving parts. A proof-of-concept prototype of a range finder based on this approach was implemented and experimentally tested. An analysis of main sources of errors is also presented.