A comparison between temporal coherence and spectral filtering techniques for signal enhancement

Abstract

Temporal coherence differences between a signal of interest and background illumination can be used to enhance the contrast of the signal. A sensor system that uses this information is demonstrated for both laser and non-laser detection. The performance of this system is then compared to the use of spectral filtering alone. By employing coherence modulation, it is shown that the system gain can be improved by several orders of magnitude.