AbstractTo explain the experimental characteristics of a laser Doppler velocimeter using the self‐mixing effect of a semiconductor laser diode (LDV) with a rotating disc as a target, a theoretical analysis of a Doppler beat waveform was carried out, and its approximate solution was obtained by using the perturbation method. The theoretical characteristics based on this solution agreed fairly well with the experimental ones. The operating conditions of the LDV required for forming the beat wave into a sawtooth waveform, and the reasons why the sawtooth wave is transformed into a mirror image depending on the sign of the Doppler frequency were found, i.e., the phase angles of the second and third higher harmonics of the beat wave are inverted by the inversion of the direction of rotation. The upper limit of the Doppler frequency and the range ofRparameter of the LD were estimated theoreticall