Pile-up effect in an infrared single-pixel compressive LiDAR system

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Signal Processing
• Computer Vision

Background:

• Compressive sensing (CS) is utilized in single-pixel LiDAR systems with single-photon-counting avalanche diodes.
• Photon pile-up, a detector limitation, can cause artifacts in reconstructed images.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the grayscale inversed image artifact in infrared single-pixel LiDAR.
• To develop and validate methods for mitigating the photon pile-up effect in LiDAR systems.

Main Methods:

• Demonstration of grayscale inversed images in LiDAR reconstructions.
• Development of a correction algorithm to address photon pile-up.
• Implementation of sparse measurement techniques.
• Experimental verification of proposed correction methods.

Main Results:

• An unexpected grayscale inversed image artifact was observed due to photon pile-up.
• The proposed correction algorithm and sparse measurement effectively reduced photon pile-up influence.
• Negative images were completely removed in experimental verification.

Conclusions:

• The developed correction methods significantly improve the accuracy of single-pixel LiDAR systems.
• These techniques enhance the flexibility of LiDAR systems using detectors with low maximum light counts.
• The findings are crucial for advancing LiDAR technology in various applications.