Mitigation of phase noise and Doppler-induced frequency offsets in coherent random amplitude modulated continuous-wave LiDAR.

We present a detailed analysis of techniques to mitigate the effects of phase noise and Doppler-induced frequency offsets in coherent random amplitude modulated continuous-wave (RAMCW) LiDAR. The analysis focuses specifically on a technique which uses coherent dual-quadrature detection to enable a sum of squares calculation to remove the input signal's dependence on carrier phase and frequency. This increases the correlation bandwidth of the matched-template filter to the bandwidth of the acquisition system, whilst also supporting the simultaneous measurement of relative radial velocity with unambiguous direction-of-travel. A combination of simulations and experiments demonstrate the sum of squares technique's ability to measure distance with consistently high SNR, more than 15 dB better than alternative techniques whilst operating in the presence of otherwise catastrophic phase noise and large frequency offsets. In principle, the technique is able to mitigate any sources of phase noise and frequency offsets common to the two orthogonal outputs of a coherent dual-quadrature receiver including laser frequency noise, speckle-induced phase noise, and Doppler frequency shifts due to accelerations.