Recirculating frequency-shifting loop for flexible optical chirp generation and FMCW LiDAR

Abstract

A recirculating frequency-shifting loop (FSL) provides a highly flexible platform for generating coherent optically chirped light with tunable bandwidth, duration, chirp rate and repetition rate. The properties of the chirped light are controlled using low-frequency sinusoidal electronic drive signals, enabling deterministic waveform synthesis without complex high-speed electronics. We achieve chirp bandwidths of 10 GHz with a duration in the nanosecond regime, representing one of the fastest tunable laser sources to date. Using such chirped laser pulses, we demonstrate coherent FMCW LiDAR measurements over distances up to 3 m, highlighting the potential of FSL-based sources for compact, scalable and high-performance ranging systems.