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Rangefinding with Eye-safe Light.
We may never know whether Iran deliberately used laser systems such as tank-mounted laser rangefinders to cause the cases of eye damage to Iranian soldiers which were reported during the 1980s Iran/Iraq war, but around the world there is now a trend towards the deployment of eye-safe laser rangefinders.
Laser rangefinders emit a single pulse or series of pulses of coherent light towards the target. This light will be tightly controlled in dispersion, so the pulse may be only a metre in diameter at a range of several kilometres. When the light reaches the target, it is scattered in all directions, but enough energy is reflected back in the direction of the laser rangefinder to allow the returned pulse to be detected. By measuring the time taken for the pulse to complete the round trip, the laser rangefinder is able to determine target range. The first laser demonstrated in 1960 used a synthetic ruby crystal as its working material, and by the early 1970s, ruby lasers had been fitted to the M551A1 Sheridan light tank, then to the M60A2 main battle tank. During the 1980s, laser rangefinders and target designators based on the more practical neodymium: yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) technology were widely used by infantry, armour and artillery units, and were mounted in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to improve...See the full content of this document
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