In this paper the application of an upconversion detector to pulsed CO₂ lidar is investigated. In this device a nonlinear IR crystal would be used to convert 10-µm lidar radiation into the visible region for conventional detection with a photomultiplier tube. A pulsed CO₂ lidar can be substantially improved with an upconversion detector configured for rejection of thermal background radiation using a narrowband filter for the up-converted signal or a cold filter front end. The sensitivity of the upconversion detector with the narrowband visible wavelength filter is estimated to be 2 orders of magnitude better than that of the usual direct detection diode. The cold filter can improve upconversion detection to nearly the signal-shot limit. These upconversion detectors are not limited by speckle noise as is a pulsed heterodyne detector.

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