Single photon imaging based on a photon driven sparse sampling

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• 3D Imaging Technologies
• Sensing Applications

Background:

• Single photon 3D imagers offer high sensitivity for capturing detailed 3D profiles and seeing through obscuring objects.
• Conventional pulsed single photon lidar systems face limitations in depth resolution and multi-return discrimination due to transmitter and receiver bandwidth constraints.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and experimentally demonstrate a single photon imager capable of time-resolved and multi-return imaging.
• To overcome the bandwidth limitations of conventional lidar systems for enhanced 3D imaging capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of time-to-frequency conversion for achieving high depth resolution.
• Utilizing a photon-driven sparse sampling mechanism for discriminating multiple near surfaces.
• Experimental validation of the proposed single photon imager's performance.

Main Results:

• Achieved depth resolution better than 4.5 mm, despite significant time jitter (1 ns) from the SPAD and time resolution (10 ns) of the TCSPC module.
• Demonstrated the ability to discriminate multiple near surfaces, overcoming receiver bandwidth limitations.
• The system hardware is simple, enabling low-cost and compact 3D imaging.

Conclusions:

• The proposed single photon imager effectively achieves high depth resolution and multi-return discrimination.
• The innovative approach overcomes key limitations of existing lidar technologies.
• The developed system presents a promising, cost-effective solution for advanced 3D sensing and imaging applications.