Multi-photon enhanced resolution for Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector-based Time-of-Flight lidar systems

Abazi, Adrian S.; Jaha, Roland; Graham-Scott, Connor A.; Pernice, Wolfram H. P.; Schuck, Carsten

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) emerged in the last decade as a disruptive technology that features performance characteristics, such as high sensitivity, dynamic range, and temporal accuracy, which are ideally suited for light detection and ranging (lidar) applications. Here, we report a time-of-flight lidar system based on waveguide-integrated SNSPDs that excels in temporal accuracy, which translates into high range resolution. For single-shot measurements, we find resolution in the millimeter regime, resulting from the jitter of the time-of-flight signal of 21ps for low photon numbers. We further decrease this signal jitter to 11ps by driving the SNSPD into a multiphoton detection regime, utilizing laser pulses of higher intensity, thus improving range resolution. For multishot measurements, we find submillimeter range accuracy of 0.75mm and reveal additional surface information of scanned objects by visualizing the number of reflected photons and their temporal spread with the acquired range data in a combined representation. Our realization of a lidar receiver exploits favorable timing accuracy of waveguide-integrated SNSPDs and extends their operation to the multiphoton regime, which benefits a wide range of remote sensing applications.