A pulsed pseudo-thermal light source obtained using a rotating ground
glass disk, spatial light modulator, or digital micromirror device is
widely used in a ghost imaging (GI) lidar system. The property of the
pulsed pseudothermal light field determines the reconstruction quality of
the image in the GI lidar system, which depends on the pulse
extinction ratio (PER) and pulse duty ratio. In this paper,
pseudo-thermal light fields obtained at different pulse
characteristics are given, taking into account the influence of the
exposure time of the charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The
statistical distribution, contrast, and normalized intensity
correlated function of the pseudo-thermal light field at different
pulse characteristics are analyzed quantitatively for what we believe
is the first time. Then, the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the
reconstructed image using a GI algorithm and a differential ghost
imaging (DGI) algorithm is numerically simulated. The simulation
results demonstrate that the PSNR decreases as the PER decreases,
which is affected by the pulse duty ratio and the CCD exposure time.
The deterioration of the reconstruction quality can be reduced by
using a DGI algorithm or by shorting the exposure time of the CCD in
the GI lidar system.