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Rapid and precise absolute distance measurements at long range

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 351–356 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability to determine absolute distance to an object is one of the most basic measurements of remote sensing. High-precision ranging has important applications in both large-scale manufacturing and in future tight formation-flying satellite missions, where rapid and precise measurements of absolute distance are critical for maintaining the relative pointing and position of the individual satellites. Using two coherent broadband fibre-laser frequency comb sources, we demonstrate a coherent laser ranging system that combines the advantages of time-of-flight and interferometric approaches to provide absolute distance measurements, simultaneously from multiple reflectors, and at low power. The pulse time-of-flight yields a precision of 3 µm with an ambiguity range of 1.5 m in 200 µs. Through the optical carrier phase, the precision is improved to better than 5 nm at 60 ms, and through the radio-frequency phase the ambiguity range is extended to 30 km, potentially providing 2 parts in 1013 ranging at long distances.

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Figure 1: Ranging concept.
Figure 2: Schematic of the experimental set-up.
Figure 3: Real-time image of the range versus time for a moving target (shown in false colour).
Figure 4: Residuals of the measured time-of-flight and interferometric range measurements versus truth data from a commercial c.w. interferometer.
Figure 5: Precision (Allan deviation) of the distance measurement versus averaging time.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge technical assistance from C. Nelson and D. Nickel, as well as very helpful discussions with T. Fortier, D. Braje, N. Ashby, I. Bakalski, P. Bender, M. Foster, R. Holzwarth, J. Leitch, A. Newbury, R. Reibel, P. Roos, M. Stephens, J. Stone, C. Wiemer and P. Williams.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway M.S. 815 Boulder, Colorado, 80305, USA

    I. Coddington, W. C. Swann, L. Nenadovic & N. R. Newbury

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  1. I. Coddington
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  3. L. Nenadovic
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  4. N. R. Newbury
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Contributions

I.C., W.C.S. and N.R.N. contributed equally to this work. L.N. assisted with the data analysis.

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Correspondence to I. Coddington or N. R. Newbury.

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Coddington, I., Swann, W., Nenadovic, L. et al. Rapid and precise absolute distance measurements at long range. Nature Photon 3, 351–356 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.94

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