A Pulsed Lidar System With Ultimate Quantum Range Accuracy

Abstract

A light detection and ranging (lidar) system using a multi-output quantum pulse gate (mQPG) for quantum uncertainty limited range resolution is presented. Due to the inherent phase-sensitivity of the process, the proposed mQPG enhanced lidar system is able to beat the theoretical Rayleigh range resolution limit and the single detection Craméer-Rao bound (CRB) of classic pulsed lidar. To achieve this behavior, gating pulses interact with the backscattered lidar pulse while propagating through the optically non linear waveguide within the mQPG. The intensity of the discrete spectral channels of the mQPG contains finally the target distance informations. The mQPG was fabricated in a periodically poled (PP) titanium-indiffused lithium niobate waveguide and the entire system was built up in a lab environment. Measurement up to 1500 μm were performed around an arbitrary set reference point, and show excellent agreement with the theory up to 600 μm for a pulse length of 1.56ps, and up to 1100 μm for a pulse length of 2.12ps.