High resolution parallel pulse chaotic LiDAR based on AlGaAs micro-ring

Chaotic lidar systems possess inherent anti-disturbance capabilities due to the randomness of chaotic signals. In this work, we leverage the high nonlinearity of AlGaAs micro-ring to develop a sub-centimeter resolution LiDAR. Firstly, an AlGaAs lidar model is built with the LLE (Lugiato-Lefever) equations, showing a theoretically ranging resolution of about 0.9 cm, while the resolution of classic Si₃N₄ lidar is about 9.7 cm. This improvement stems from the AlGaAs chaotic signal's 8.61 GHz bandwidth, which is about 10 times wider than the Si₃N₄ micro-ring chaos (∼0.85 GHz). Experimentally, the AlGaAs micro-ring generated a chaotic pulse signal via a 20% duty-cycle square wave (50 μs period), resulting in a peak power 5 times higher than that of continuous chaos. The LiDAR realizes a ranging resolution of ±0.29 cm with a transmit power as low as 10 dBm and constructs 3D scanning point clouds through parallel processing of multi-wavelength optical comb. This high-resolution, low-power LiDAR system could hold applications in scenarios with strong interference or high noise due to its remarkable advantages.