We develop and investigate a dual-frequency Laser Doppler Velocimeter (DF-LDV) based on an optically injected
semiconductor laser. By operating the laser in a period-one oscillation (P1) state, the laser can emit light with
two coherent frequency components separated by about 11.25 GHz. Through optical heterodyning, the velocity
of the target can be determined from the Doppler shift of the beat signal of the dual-frequency light. While
the DF-LDV has the same advantages of good directionality and high intensity as in the conventional singlefrequency
LDV (SF-LDV), having an effective wavelength in the range of microwave in the beat signal greatly
reduces the speckle noise caused by the random phase modulation from the rough surface of the moving target.
To demonstrate the speckle noise reduction, the Doppler shifted signals from a moving target covered by the
plain paper are measured both from the SF-LDV and the DF-LDV. The target is rotated to provide a transverse
velocity, where the speckle noise increases as the transverse velocity increases. The bandwidth of the Doppler
signal obtained from the SF-LDV is increased from 4.7 kHz to 9.4 kHz as the transverse velocity increases from
0 m/s to 5 m/s. In contrast, the bandwidth obtained from the DF-LDV maintains at 0.09 Hz with or without the
rotation limited by the linewidth of the P1 state used. By phase-locking the laser with a RF current modulation,
the linewidth of the P1 state can be much reduced to further improve the velocity resolution and extend the
detection range.
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