Patent ID: 7280186

Claim:
An optical laser system comprising: (a) a source of optical pulses generated at a frequency ω at an output thereof; (b) a first non-linear optical device responsive to the output of the optical source for the generation of optical radiation at a frequency of Nω, where N=2 or 3; (c) a first dispersive device for chirping the optical pulses at the frequency of ω; (d) a second dispersive device for chirping the optical radiation at the frequency of Nω; (e) an amplitude modulator for amplitude modulating the chirped optical pulses; (f) transmission optics for transmitting amplitude modulated, chirped optical pulses to a target; (g) reception optics for collecting back-scattered radiation for the target; (h) a second non-linear optical device responsive to the collected back-scattered radiation at the frequency ω and to the chirped optical radiation at the frequency of Nω for producing an optical signal; and (i) analysis apparatus for determining relatively fine range resolution information based upon the optical signal produced by the second non-linear optical device and relatively coarse range resolution information based upon the collected back-scattered radiation at the frequency ω.