Amplitude-modulated continuous-wave laser rangefinder employingBessel–Gauss beamforming

We propose an amplitude-modulated continuous-wave laser rangefinder employing Bessel–Gauss beamforming. Our Bessel–Gauss beam was generated by a newly proposed doublet configuration, which is simple and low cost. Such a beam was propagated >2m with a mainlobe having the diameter <1mm. We have conducted proof-of-concept ranging experiments employing the amplitude-modulated continuous-wave scheme with the Bessel–Gauss beam and obtained ranging results of a measurement distance up to 2 m. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to apply zeroth-order Bessel–Gauss beamforming to laser rangefinders.