Optical systems, devices, and methods including high performance optical receivers

A system comprising

• an electrical reference signal generator to provide an electrical reference signal;
• at least one optical transmitter to transmit an output optical signal carrying the electrical reference signal;
• and
• at least one optical receiver to receive a reflection of the output optical signal,
• the at least one optical receiver including
• at least one local oscillator providing local oscillator light at a local oscillator frequency that is not controlled and offset by a frequency difference from the output optical signal,
• a combiner for coupling the reflection of the output optical signal with the local oscillator light into a coupled optical signal,
• an optical-electrical converter for converting the coupled optical signal into a first electrical signal,
• a rectifier to rectify the first electrical signal to provide a first rectified electrical signal, the optical-electrical converter and rectifier having a bandwidth to receive the coupled optical signal and account for variations resulting from at least one frequency chirp of the output optical signal resulting from directly modulating the optical source and the local oscillator light not being controlled;
• an electrical combiner to combine the first rectified electrical signal with the electrical reference signal to generate a detection signal based on differences between the first rectified electrical signal and electrical reference signal;
• and
• a signal processor to calculate a distance traveled by the reflection optical signal based on the first rectified electrical signal and the electrical reference signal.