scholarly journals Small All-Range Lidar for Asteroid and Comet Core Missions

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3081
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Sun ◽  
Daniel R. Cremons ◽  
Erwan Mazarico ◽  
Guangning Yang ◽  
James B. Abshire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Lasers ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Photon Counting ◽  
Avalanche Photodiode ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Linear Mode ◽  
Internal Gain ◽  
Pseudo Noise

We report the development of a new type of space lidar specifically designed for missions to small planetary bodies for both topographic mapping and support of sample collection or landing. The instrument is designed to have a wide dynamic range with several operation modes for different mission phases. The laser transmitter consists of a fiber laser that is intensity modulated with a return-to-zero pseudo-noise (RZPN) code. The receiver detects the coded pulse-train by correlating the detected signal with the RZPN kernel. Unlike regular pseudo noise (PN) lidars, the RZPN kernel is set to zero outside laser firing windows, which removes most of the background noise over the receiver integration time. This technique enables the use of low peak-power but high pulse-rate lasers, such as fiber lasers, for long-distance ranging without aliasing. The laser power and the internal gain of the detector can both be adjusted to give a wide measurement dynamic range. The laser modulation code pattern can also be reconfigured in orbit to optimize measurements to different measurement environments. The receiver uses a multi-pixel linear mode photon-counting HgCdTe avalanche photodiode (APD) array with near quantum limited sensitivity at near to mid infrared wavelengths where many fiber lasers and diode lasers operate. The instrument is modular and versatile and can be built mostly with components developed by the optical communication industry.

scholarly journals High Dynamic Range Imaging with TDC-Based CMOS SPAD Arrays

Instruments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Zarghami ◽  
Leonardo Gasparini ◽  
Matteo Perenzoni ◽  
Lucio Pancheri
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Single Photon ◽  
Photon Counting ◽  
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽  
High Dynamic Range ◽  
Oxide Semiconductor ◽  
Photon Flux ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Rate Dependent ◽  
High Dynamic

This paper investigates the use of image sensors based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging by combining photon counts and timestamps. The proposed method is validated experimentally with an SPAD detector based on a per-pixel time-to-digital converter (TDC) architecture. The detector, featuring 32 × 32 pixels with 44.64-µm pitch, 19.48% fill factor, and time-resolving capability of ~295-ps, was fabricated in a 150-nm CMOS standard technology. At high photon flux densities, the pixel output is saturated when operating in photon-counting mode, thus limiting the DR of this imager. This limitation can be overcome by exploiting the distribution of photon arrival times in each pixel, which shows an exponential behavior with a decay rate dependent on the photon flux level. By fitting the histogram curve with the exponential decay function, the extracted time constant is used to estimate the photon count. This approach achieves 138.7-dB dynamic range within 30-ms of integration time, and can be further extended by using a timestamping mechanism with a higher resolution.

Update on linear mode photon counting with the HgCdTe linear mode avalanche photodiode

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 081906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Beck ◽  
Mike Kinch ◽  
Xiaoli Sun
Keyword(s):  
Photon Counting ◽  
Avalanche Photodiode ◽  
Linear Mode

Linear mode photon counting with the noiseless gain HgCdTe e-avalanche photodiode

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 081905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Beck ◽  
Richard Scritchfield ◽  
Pradip Mitra ◽  
William W. Sullivan ◽  
Anthony D. Gleckler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Photon Counting ◽  
Avalanche Photodiode ◽  
Linear Mode

Linear mode photon counting from visible to MWIR with HgCdTe avalanche photodiode focal plane arrays

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Sullivan ◽  
Jeffrey Beck ◽  
Richard Scritchfield ◽  
Mark Skokan ◽  
Pradip Mitra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focal Plane ◽  
Photon Counting ◽  
Avalanche Photodiode ◽  
Focal Plane Arrays ◽  
Linear Mode

scholarly journals Detectivity optimization to detect of ultraweak light fluxes with an EM-CCD as binary photon counter array

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibtissame Khaoua ◽  
Guillaume Graciani ◽  
Andrey Kim ◽  
François Amblard
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Photon Counting ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Strong Nonlinearity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Spatially Extended ◽  
Extended Sources ◽  
Photon Counting Mode

AbstractFor a wide range of purposes, one faces the challenge to detect light from extremely faint and spatially extended sources. In such cases, detector noises dominate over the photon noise of the source, and quantum detectors in photon counting mode are generally the best option. Here, we combine a statistical model with an in-depth analysis of detector noises and calibration experiments, and we show that visible light can be detected with an electron-multiplying charge-coupled devices (EM-CCD) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 3 for fluxes less than $$30\,{\text{photon}}\,{\text{s}}^{ - 1} \,{\text{cm}}^{ - 2}$$ 30 photon s - 1 cm - 2 . For green photons, this corresponds to 12 aW $${\text{cm}}^{ - 2}$$ cm - 2 ≈ $$9{ } \times 10^{ - 11}$$ 9 × 10 - 11 lux, i.e. 15 orders of magnitude less than typical daylight. The strong nonlinearity of the SNR with the sampling time leads to a dynamic range of detection of 4 orders of magnitude. To detect possibly varying light fluxes, we operate in conditions of maximal detectivity $${\mathcal{D}}$$ D rather than maximal SNR. Given the quantum efficiency $$QE\left( \lambda \right)$$ Q E λ of the detector, we find $${ \mathcal{D}} = 0.015\,{\text{photon}}^{ - 1} \,{\text{s}}^{1/2} \,{\text{cm}}$$ D = 0.015 photon - 1 s 1 / 2 cm , and a non-negligible sensitivity to blackbody radiation for T > 50 °C. This work should help design highly sensitive luminescence detection methods and develop experiments to explore dynamic phenomena involving ultra-weak luminescence in biology, chemistry, and material sciences.

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