Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, Volume. 62, Issue 1, 0112003(2025)

High-Precision Single-Photon Ranging with Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Diode

Sinuo Lu*, Zhaohui Li, Xiuliang Chen, and Guang Wu
Author Affiliations
  • State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
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    Laser ranging based on single-photon detection (single-photon ranging) usually employs pulse time-of-flight method, whereby the target distance is obtained by measuring the time of emission of the laser pulse and time of arrival of the echo photon. To achieve high ranging precision, a narrow-pulse laser with low timing jitter, a high-precision detector, and an event timer are required, which significantly increases the system cost. In this paper, we introduce a low-cost single-photon laser ranging method and propose a cross-correlation algorithm for moving-window accumulation, thereby effectively improving the ranging precision of larger timing jitter systems. In the experiment, a laser diode light source with a pulse width of 2.18 ns and a silicon avalanche photodiode single-photon detector with a timing jitter of 0.80 ns were used. The photon time-of-flight measurement precision improved to 0.13 ns, and the unidirectional ranging precision reached 4.0 cm, using the cross-correlation algorithm.

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    Sinuo Lu, Zhaohui Li, Xiuliang Chen, Guang Wu. High-Precision Single-Photon Ranging with Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Diode[J]. Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, 2025, 62(1): 0112003

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    Paper Information

    Category: Instrumentation, Measurement and Metrology

    Received: Apr. 1, 2024

    Accepted: May. 16, 2024

    Published Online: Jan. 3, 2025

    The Author Email:

    DOI:10.3788/LOP240997

    CSTR:32186.14.LOP240997

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