Compact lidar polarimetry via time-varying transmit polarization and an elliptical polarization analyzer

Richard K. Martin; Christian Keyser

doi:10.1117/12.2518880

2 May 2019 Compact lidar polarimetry via time-varying transmit polarization and an elliptical polarization analyzer

Richard K. Martin, Christian Keyser

Proceedings Volume 11005, Laser Radar Technology and Applications XXIV; 110050A (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2518880
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2019, Baltimore, MD, United States

Abstract

In a recently developed compact LiDAR polarimeter, the transmit beam cycles through multiple polarization states within each laser pulse and the receiver splits the received signal into multiple polarization state analyzers (PSAs), with the PSA outputs temporally multiplexed into a single detector. This enables measurement of up to 12 of the 16 Mueller matrix elements of a target using limited hardware. However, due to numerical issues, one entire column of the matrix is not accessible, including the M₂₂ element (counting from zero) on the matrix diagonal. Experimental data show that for most surfaces of interest in a defense/security setting, the off-diagonal elements tend to be negligibly small and the diagonal elements vary between targets, so access to the diagonal elements is of high interest. In this paper, we show that if an elliptical PSA is used at the receiver and if most of the off-diagonal Mueller matrix elements are assumed to be zero a priori, then the otherwise inaccessible M₂₂ element can be estimated. We explore the linear algebra of the problem to determine the full list of which subsets of Mueller matrix elements can be estimated with this hardware configuration. We also theoretically and empirically investigate the effects of the rotations of the electro-optic transmitter plate and receiver elliptical PSA on the overall system performance.

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Richard K. Martin and Christian Keyser "Compact lidar polarimetry via time-varying transmit polarization and an elliptical polarization analyzer", Proc. SPIE 11005, Laser Radar Technology and Applications XXIV, 110050A (2 May 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2518880

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KEYWORDS

Sensors

Polarization

Signal to noise ratio

Receivers

LIDAR

Polarimetry

Elliptical polarization

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