Automated Stokesmetric imaging laser radar system

We report the design and implementation of a high-speed, automated laser radar (ladar) system with sensitivity enhanced by a polarimetric imaging technique. This ladar is able to analyze the Stokes vector of the reflected light from a target at video-rate. With a polarization state generator and a polarization state analyzer, the system is capable of performing a complete Mueller matrix imaging of the scene under observation. This polarization- sensitive ladar (pladar) is applied to various scenes and found to yield the ability to detect information that is indiscernible to a conventional, intensity-based ladar.