Chaos single photon LIDAR and the ranging performance analysis based on Monte Carlo simulation

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Sensing Technologies
• Laser Systems

Background:

• Single photon lidar systems are increasingly susceptible to crosstalk due to serial production advancements.
• Existing pseudo-random sequence lidar struggles with limitations like range ambiguity and crosstalk interference.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and theoretically model a novel Chaos Single Photon (CSP) lidar system.
• To evaluate the anti-crosstalk capabilities and performance improvements of CSP lidar over traditional systems.

Main Methods:

• Replacing traditional pulsed lasers with chaos lasers in the lidar system.
• Utilizing physical random sequences from Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes (GM-APDs) instead of pseudo-random sequences.
• Deriving theoretical models for detection probability and false alarm rate based on Poisson distribution.

Main Results:

• CSP lidar achieves a mean density of '1' code exceeding 10 million counts per second (Mcps) with dead time immunity.
• Demonstrated robust anti-crosstalk capability and overcome range ambiguity.
• Achieved a signal-to-noise rate (SNR) 60 times higher than traditional systems, reaching 10000.

Conclusions:

• CSP lidar offers a significant advancement in lidar technology, providing superior performance and overcoming limitations of existing systems.
• The system's high sensitivity and anti-crosstalk features position it for applications in weak signal detection, remote mapping, and autonomous driving.