United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Hui Li

Guangning Yang

Mark A Stephen

Jeffrey R Chen

The present invention relates to a lidar system including: laser transmitter and receiver systems, the laser transmitter system including: a wavelength-tunable seed laser which emits pulses at selected wavelength points, and switches between wavelengths within a switching time of <200 ns; a fiber amplifier which amplifies the laser pulses up to 200 kW to a transmitter grating; and a transmitter telescope including primary and secondary mirrors. The laser beam is directed from the transmitter grating to the secondary then primary mirrors, and the first transmitter grating is imaged on the primary mirror to minimize laser beam wander thereon. The transmitter grating diffracts and steers the laser beam by wavelength to a surface, to an arbitrary subset of <2000 resolvable footprints along a cross-track direction at a beam pointing angle switching time of <200 ns, such that footprints illuminated by the laser beam on the surface are imaged in 3D.

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North Potomac, MD, United States of America

Hui Li