Experimental demonstration of spectral suppression effect improvement for multi-longitudinal mode high-spectral-resolution lidar.

The multi-longitudinal mode high-spectral-resolution lidar (MLM-HSRL) is an effective technique for detecting atmospheric optical characteristics of aerosols. Due to the excessive longitudinal mode numbers, the current MLM-HSRL cannot obtain a well spectral suppression effect, which seriously affects the retrieval accuracy of the optical characteristic parameters. In this paper, a new index called Longitudinal Mode Rejection Ratio (LMRR) has been proposed to evaluate the spectral suppression effect of the MLM-HSRL; a novel mismatch error and mode control (MEMC) technique is proposed to improve the spectral suppression effect of the MLM-HSRL, which contributes to developing the scientific potential of the MLM-HSRL for aerosol remote sensing. Based on our self-developed MLM laser, through controlling the longitudinal mode frequency-pulled shift of the MLM laser, adjusting the total mismatch error, and reducing the longitudinal mode numbers, we realize the LMRR index improved from about 5 to over 30, and the working stability of the system is also promoted by decreasing the longitudinal mode numbers. The experiment well improves the spectral suppression effect and verifies the effectiveness of the proposed MEMC technique. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, the study addresses the conundrum of the lower spectral suppression effect for the MLM-HSRL. This work would help to provide a powerful support for the high-precision, long-term, and stable operation of the MLM-HSRL in the future.