PT Journal
AU McCarthy, A
   Krichel, NJ
   Gemmell, NR
   Ren, X
   Tanner, MG
   Dorenbos, SN
   Zwiller, V
   Hadfield, RH
   Buller, GS
TI Kilometer-range, high resolution depth imaging via 1560 nm wavelength single-photon detection
SO Opt. Express
JI Opt. Express
PY 2013
BP 8904
EP 8915
VL 21
IS 7
DI 10.1364/OE.21.008904
DE SSPD; SNSPD; lidar; SSPD applications; SNSPD applications
AB This paper highlights a significant advance in time-of-flight depth imaging: by using a scanning transceiver which incorporated a free-running, low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detector, we were able to obtain centimeter resolution depth images of low-signature objects in daylight at stand-off distances of the order of one kilometer at the relatively eye-safe wavelength of 1560 nm. The detector used had an efficiency of 18% at 1 kHz dark count rate, and the overall system jitter was ~100 ps. The depth images were acquired by illuminating the scene with an optical output power level of less than 250 µW average, and using per-pixel dwell times in the millisecond regime.
ER