Yudi Zhou

Field-widened Michelson interferometer for spectral discrimination in high-spectral-resolution lidar: theoretical framework

A field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI) is developed to act as the spectral discriminator in high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL). This realization is motivated by the wide-angle Michelson interferometer (WAMI) which has been used broadly in the atmospheric wind and temperature detection. This paper describes an independent theoretical framework about the application of the FWMI in HSRL for the first time. In the framework, the operation principles and application requirements of the FWMI are discussed in comparison with that of the WAMI. Theoretical foundations for designing this type of interferometer are introduced based on these comparisons. Moreover, a general performance estimation model for the FWMI is established, which can provide common guidelines for the performance budget and evaluation of the FWMI in the both design and operation stages. Examples incorporating many practical imperfections or conditions that may degrade the performance of the FWMI are given to illustrate the implementation of the modeling. This theoretical framework presents a complete and powerful tool for solving most of theoretical or engineering problems encountered in the FWMI application, including the designing, parameter calibration, prior performance budget, posterior performance estimation, and so on. It will be a valuable contribution to the lidar community to develop a new generation of HSRLs based on the FWMI spectroscopic filter.

Field-widened Michelson interferometer for spectral discrimination in high-spectral-resolution lidar: practical development.

A field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI), which is intended as the spectroscopic discriminator in ground-based high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) for atmospheric aerosol detection, is described in this paper. The structure, specifications and design of the developed prototype FWMI are introduced, and an experimental approach is proposed to optimize the FWMI assembly and evaluate its comprehensive characteristic simultaneously. Experimental results show that, after optimization process, the peak-to-valley (PV) value and root-mean-square (RMS) value of measured OPD variation for the FWMI are 0.04λ and 0.008λ respectively among the half divergent angle range of 1.5 degree. Through an active locking technique, the frequency of the FWMI can be locked to the laser transmitter with accuracy of 27 MHz for more than one hour. The practical spectral discrimination ratio (SDR) for the developed FWMI is evaluated to be larger than 86 if the divergent angle of incident beam is smaller than 0.5 degree. All these results demonstrate the great potential of the developed FWMI as the spectroscopic discriminator for HSRLs, as well as the feasibility of the proposed design and optimization process. This paper is expected to provide a good entrance for the lidar community in future HSRL developments using the FWMI technique.

Frequency locking of a field-widened Michelson interferometer based on optimal multi-harmonics heterodyning.

A general resonant frequency locking scheme for a field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI), which is intended as a spectral discriminator in a high-spectral-resolution lidar, is proposed based on optimal multi-harmonics heterodyning. By transferring the energy of a reference laser to multi-harmonics of different orders generated by optimal electro-optic phase modulation, the heterodyne signal of these multi-harmonics through the FWMI can reveal the resonant frequency drift of the interferometer very sensitively within a large frequency range. This approach can overcome the locking difficulty induced by the low finesse of the FWMI, thus contributing to excellent locking accuracy and lock acquisition range without any constraint on the interferometer itself. The theoretical and experimental results are presented to verify the performance of this scheme.

Design of the interferometric spectral discrimination filters for a three-wavelength high-spectral-resolution lidar

We address design of the interferometric spectral discrimination (ISD) filters for a specific three-wavelength high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) in this paper. Taking into account the strong dependence of the transmittance of the ISD filters on the incident angle of light ray, the optical path of the receiving channel with an ISD filter in HSRL is analyzed. We derive the lidar equation with the angular distribution of backscatter signal, through which Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are then carried out to obtain the optimal parameters of the ISD filters for the HSRL at 1064 nm, 532 nm and 355 nm, respectively. Comparing the retrieval errors of the MC simulations based on different ISD filters, the configuration and parameters of the best ISD filter at each wavelength are determined. This paper can be employed as a theoretical guidance during the design of a three-wavelength HSRL with ISD filters.

Development of a field-widened Michelson spectroscopic filter for a polarized near-infrared high spectral resolution lidar

Standard backscatter lidars encounter problems when solving the two unknowns (aerosol backscatter coefficient and extinction coefficient) from the only one recorded lidar equation. With the help of the high-spectral-resolution filter, high spectral resolution lidars (HSRLs) can provide unambiguous retrieval without critical assumptions. Spectral discrimination between scattering from molecules and aerosols or cloud particles is the basis of the HSRL technique, and several lidar approaches have been developed to obtain this discrimination. Iodine cell filter, which is a kind of atomic/molecular absorption filter, is robust, stable, and can achieve very good separation of aerosol Mie scattering from atmosphere molecular Cabannes scattering. However, absorption filters are lossy and gaseous absorption lines do not exist at many convenient laser wavelengths. Fabry-Perot interferometers are simple and can be tuned to any wavelength, but are limited by acceptance angle. Field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI) is considered to have the ability to overcome the deficiencies of the aforementioned filters as it can perform well at relatively large off-axis angles, is nearly lossless, and can be built to any wavelength. In this paper, the development process of an FWMI that is introduced to be the spectroscopic filter for a polarized near-infrared HSRL instrument will be present. The retrieval process of the aerosol optical properties, the design requirements with special focus on the selection of the free spectral range (FSR) of the FWMI, as well as the design result will be described in detail.

Polarized high-spectral-resolution lidar based on field-widened Michelson interferometer

A polarized high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) based on a field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI) is developed in Zhejiang University, China, which is intended to profile various atmospheric aerosol optical properties simultaneously, such as the backscatter coefficient, the extinction coefficient, depolarization ratio, lidar ratio, etc. Due to the enlarged field-of-view (FOV) of the FWMI spectroscopic filter compared with the conventional Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) filter, we can expand the angular acceptable angle of the HSRL system to about 1 degree yet without any degradation of the spectral discrimination, enhancing the photon efficiency considerably. In this paper, we describe the developed FWMI-based polarized HSRL system comprehensively. The instrument configuration parameters and overall systematic structure are first presented. Then the FWMI subsystem, as the core apparatus of this HSRL, is particularly focused on. Instrumental calibration approach and the data retrieval are also discussed in detail. To our knowledge, this HSRL system is the first new generation of lidar which employs the FWMI spectroscopic filter in China, and great potential will be shown with the gradually improved engineering design in near future.

Generalized high-spectral-resolution lidar technique with a multimode laser for aerosol remote sensing

High-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) is a powerful tool for atmospheric aerosol remote sensing. The current HSRL technique often requires a single longitudinal mode laser as the transmitter to accomplish the spectral discrimination of the aerosol and molecular scattering conveniently. However, single-mode laser is cumbersome and has very strict requirements for ambient stability, making the HSRL instrument not so robust in many cases. In this paper, a new HSRL concept, called generalized HSRL technique with a multimode laser (MML-gHSRL), is proposed, which can work using a multimode laser. The MML-gHSRL takes advantage of the period characteristic of the spectral function of the interferometric spectral discrimination filter (ISDF) thoroughly. By matching the free spectral range of the ISDF with the mode interval of the multimode laser, fine spectral discrimination for the lidar return from each longitudinal mode can be realized. Two common ISDFs, i.e., the Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) and field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI), are introduced to develop the MML-gHSRL, and their performance is quantitatively analyzed and compared. The MML-gHSRL is a natural but significant generalization for the current HSRL technique based on the IDSF. It is potential that this technique would be a good entrance to future HSRL developments, especially in airborne and satellite-borne aerosol remote sensing applications.

Retrieving the seawater volume scattering function at the 180° scattering angle with a high-spectral-resolution lidar

A high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) is proposed to retrieve the seawater volume scattering function at the 180° scattering angle βπ without the assumption of the lidar extinction-to-backscatter ratio. A field-widened Michelson interferometer is employed as the ultra-narrow spectral discriminator to reject particulate scattering and molecular Rayleigh scattering but transmit molecular Mandelshtam-Brillouin scattering. The theoretical framework to retrieve βπ is presented in detail based on a dual-channel HSRL configuration. Simulation on the retrieval and error estimation shows that, the proposed oceanographic HSRL based on the ship or aircraft can perform well to extract the profile of βπ and has a real potential in the oceanographic remote sensing.

Field-widened Michelson interferometer system as the spectroscopic filter of high-spectral-resolution lidar

We propose and develop a field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI) system to act as a new type of spectroscopic filter in HSRL application. Due to the field widening characteristic, the FWMI can allow relatively large off-axis incident angle, and can be designed to any desirable wavelength. The theoretical foundations of the FWMI are introduced in this paper, and the developed prototype interferometer is described. It consists of a solid arm made of the glass H-ZF52 with the dimension of 37.876 mm, and an air gap with the length of 20.382 mm. These two interference arms are connected to a cube beam splitter to constitute a Michelson interferometer. Due to the matched dimensions and refractive indices of the two arms, the experimental testing results show that the OPD variation of the developed FWMI is about 0.04 lambda and the RMS is less than 0.008 lambda when the incident angle is as much as 1.5 degree (half angle). The cumulative wavefront distortion caused by the FWMI is less than 0.1 lambda PV value and 0.02 lambda RMS value. To lock the filtering frequency of the FWMI to the laser transmitter, a frequency locking system, which is actually an electro-optic feedback loop, is established. The setup and principle of this frequency locking system are also described in detail. Good locking accuracy of the FWMI about 27MHz is demonstrated through the frequency locking technique. All these results validate the feasibility of this developed FWMI system as a spectroscopic filter of an HSRL.

High-spectral-resolution lidar for ocean ecosystem studies

The research and protection of the ocean ecosystem are key works to maintain the marine status and develop marine functions. However, human’s knowledge about the ocean is greatly limited. Now, in situ, acoustic and remote sensing methods have been applied in the research to understand and explore the ocean. Especially, the lidar is one outstanding remote sensing method for its high spatial and temporal resolution as well as the ability of the vertical detection. Highspectral- resolution lidar (HSRL) employs an ultra-narrow spectral filter to distinguish scattering signals between particles and water molecules without assuming a lidar ratio and obtains optical properties of the ocean with a high accuracy. Nevertheless, the complexity of the seawater causes variable marine optical properties, which gives huge potentiality to develop a HSRL working at different wavelengths in order to promote the inversion accuracy and increase the detection depth. The field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI), whose central transmittance can be tuned to any wavelength and field of view is large, can be employed as the HSRL spectral filter and solves problems that the operating wavelength of the iodine filter is fixed and the field of view of Fabry-Perot interferometer is small. The principle of the HSRL based on the FWMI designing for the ocean remote sensing will be presented in detail. In addition, the availability of the application of the FWMI influenced by the disturbance of the states of Brillouin scattering is analyzed and the preliminary theory shows that the HSRL instrument basing on FWMI could be employed in the marine remote sensing with a high accuracy.