US Patent 11668803 Few-mode amplified receiver for LIDAR

A few-mode light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system may include an illumination source to generate an illumination beam, one or more transmission optics to direct at least a portion of the illumination beam within a field of view, one or more collection optics to collect return light from an object in the field of view illuminated by the illumination beam, wherein the collected return light includes a plurality of spatial modes, a few-mode optical amplifier to optically amplify portions of the return light propagating along at least two of the plurality of spatial modes, and a detector configured to convert output light from the few-mode optical amplifier to an output electrical signal.