Subcentimeter depth resolution using a single-photon counting time-of-flight laser ranging system at 1550 nm wavelength

Published

July 30, 2007

Author(s)

Ryan E. Warburton, Aongus McCarthy, Andrew M. Wallace, Sergio Hernandez-Marin, Robert Hadfield, Sae Woo Nam, Gerald S. Buller

Abstract

We demonstrate subcentimeter depth profiling at a stand off distance of 330 m using a time-of-flight approach based on time-correlated single-photon counting. For the first time to our knowledge, the photon-counting time-of-flight technique was demonstrated at a wavelength of 1550 nm using a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The performance achieved suggests that a system using superconducting detectors has the potential for low-light-level and eye-safe operation. The system's instrumental response was 70 ps full width at half-maximum, which meant that 1 cm surface-to-surface resolution could be achieved by locating the centroids of each return signal. A depth resolution of 4 mm was achieved by employing an optimized signal-processing algorithm based on a reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo method.

Citation

Optics Letters

Volume

32

Issue

15

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Citation

Warburton, R. , McCarthy, A. , Wallace, A. , Hernandez-Marin, S. , Hadfield, R. , Nam, S. and Buller, G. (2007), Subcentimeter depth resolution using a single-photon counting time-of-flight laser ranging system at 1550 nm wavelength, Optics Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32570 (Accessed October 22, 2025)