Detection probabilities for photon-counting avalanche photodiodes applied to a laser radar system

Arrays of photon-counting avalanche photodiodes with time-resolved readout can improve the performance of three-dimensional laser radars. A comparison of the detection and false-alarm probabilities for detectors in linear mode and in Geiger mode is shown. With low background radiation their performance is comparable. It is shown that in both cases it will be necessary to process several laser shots of the same scene to improve detection and reduce the false-alarm rate. Additional calculations show that the linear mode detector is much better at detecting targets behind semitransparent obscurations such as vegetation and camouflage nets.