Dynamic time-correlated single-photon counting laser ranging

• DOI: 10.1007/s11801-018-7265-0
• Publication Date: 2018-03-03T00:11:18Z
• Authors: Huan Peng; Yu-rong Wang; Wen-dong Meng; Pei-qin Yan; Zhao-hui Li; Chen Li; Hai-feng Pan; Guang Wu
• Keywords: Photon Counting; Ranging; Coincidence Counting; Echo (communications protocol); SIGNAL (programming language)

We demonstrate a photon counting laser ranging experiment with a four-channel single-photon detector (SPD). The multi-channel SPD improve the counting rate more than 4×107 cps, which makes possible for the distance measurement performed even in daylight. However, the time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) technique cannot distill the signal easily while the fast moving targets are submersed in the strong background. We propose a dynamic TCSPC method for fast moving targets measurement by varying coincidence window in real time. In the experiment, we prove that targets with velocity of 5 km/s can be detected according to the method, while the echo rate is 20% with the background counts of more than 1.2×107 cps.