According to the statistical theory, the influence of laser linewidth on the performance of optical heterodyne system is studied. Also, the effect of laser linewidth on the visibility of fringe pattern is discussed. The expressions of self-correlation function power-spectrum and definition of visibility of fringe patterns are obtained in this paper. Based on the analytical expressions, the numerical simulation is performed. The obtained results demonstrate that the laser linewidth influences the visibility of fringe patterns according to the result shown in Fig. 3, and that the intermediate frequency can be still detected by heterodyne detection technique as the laser linewidth increases. For different linewidths, the measurement of intermediate frequency is accurate without the influence of noise as the delay d between the received signal and locally generated signal is less than the coherence time c of laser source. If the delay d is greater than the coherence time c, the full width at half maximum of intermediate frequency in the frequency spectrum of the output signal of photodetector will broaden as the laser linewidth increases. However, for a wide linewidth, the measurement of intermediate frequency is inaccurate due to the influence of noise when the delay d is greater than the coherence time c. The wider the linewidth, the less accurate the measurement of intermediate frequency will be. In order to check the correctness of theoretical results, an experiment is carried out by using a laser with a linewidth of 1 MHz, which has an 8.1 km channel path. In our experimental set-up, a cooperative target is employed to modulate and reflect the transmitted beam. In this way, an echo signal is received. The mixing process of the received signal and local signal on the photodetector surface produces an electrical current known as the photomixing current. A spectrum analyzer is used to observe the output signal of detector. The obtained spectrum shows that intermediate frequency can be checked, which is in agreement with the theoretical result. In this work, the obtained conclusions can be directly used to choose a proper laser for optical heterodyne system. According to the target characteristics and measurement requirements, and by following the conclusions obtained in this paper, the laser linewidth can be evaluated.