Simple and safe short-range lidar system for undergraduate laboratory

A simple and safe lidar system based on a nitrogen laser (337.1 nm) is described. The setup permits undergraduates to learn the principles and applications of the lidar technique. The apparatus is used for exercises about measurements of distance to objects, the determination of light velocity as well as about retrieving the back-scatter coefficient of a water aerosol cloud. The system may also be used for demonstrating the principle of fluorescence lidar.