Frequency Acquisition Approach in Polarization-Modulated Ranging Based on Lock-in Analysis

Abstract

In this study, we propose a frequency measurement and estimation approach based on a lock-in analysis for precise frequency determination in polarization-modulated ranging signals. In this method, the modulation signal of an electro-optic modulator (EOM) is manipulated to introduce an intermediate frequency (IF) component into the detected signal. Subsequently, the detected signal is analyzed using lock-in analysis techniques to extract the necessary frequency component, and a new swept frequency waveform is generated, facilitating the frequency acquisition and distance calculation. We conducted theoretical derivations, simulations and experiments to validate the effectiveness of this method. The research findings suggest that our method can enhance the accuracy of frequency measurements by a factor of approximately ten when compared to a direct detection approach, leading to a corresponding improvement in ranging precision. Furthermore, even with larger sweep step sizes and smaller modulation frequencies, the proposed approach can achieve superior ranging results.

Keywords

• laser ranging
• polarization modulation ranging
• lock-in analysis
• frequency acquisition