Heterodyne detection with a weak local oscillator
Applied Optics, Vol. 47, Issue 10, pp. 1486-1503 (2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.47.001486
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Abstract
Heterodyne detection in the limit of weak (a few photons) local oscillator and signal power levels has been largely neglected in the past, as authors almost always assumed that the noise was dominated by the shot noise from a strong local oscillator. We present the theory for heterodyne detection of diffuse and specular targets at arbitrary power levels, including the case where the local oscillator power is only a few photons per coherent integration period. The theory was tested with experimental results, and was found to show good agreement. We show how to interpret the power spectral density of the heterodyne signal and how to determine the optimal number of signal and local oscillator photons per coherent integration.
© 2008 Optical Society of America
OCIS Codes
(000.5490) General : Probability theory, stochastic processes, and statistics
(010.3640) Atmospheric and oceanic optics : Lidar
(030.5260) Coherence and statistical optics : Photon counting
(040.1240) Detectors : Arrays
(040.2840) Detectors : Heterodyne
ToC Category:
Detectors
History
Original Manuscript: August 15, 2007
Revised Manuscript: December 10, 2007
Manuscript Accepted: January 10, 2008
Published: March 27, 2008
Citation
Leaf A. Jiang and Jane X. Luu, "Heterodyne detection with a weak local oscillator," Appl. Opt. 47, 1486-1503 (2008)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/abstract.cfm?URI=ao-47-10-1486
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