Abstract
In this paper, the performance of the m-sequence modulation laser radar is theoretically analyzed. The principle of the measurement is described in terms of the digital signal processing system. The analysis shows that the m-sequence modulation laser radar transmits the modulated laser pulses but the measured response is the same as the response from the scatterer obtained by a single pulse laser radar.
The statistical variation of the measured laser radar response due to the photodetector noise is given and the result of the computer simulation is in good agreement with the theoretical estimation. The authors com-pare the m-sequence method with the average response method in terms of the variance of the measured response and prove that the former is superior to the latter.
It is also shown that the ghost response appears if the measuring system has nonlinear characteristics such as the distorted waveform of modulated laser pulses or the miscounting in the photon counting detection.
