High-speed 3D imaging using a chaos lidar system

Abstract

We characterize a new chaos lidar system configuration and demonstrate its capability for high-speed 3D imaging. Compared with a homodyned scheme employing single-element avalanche photodetectors (APDs), the proposed scheme utilizes a fiber Bragg grating and quadrant APDs to substantially increase the system throughput, frame rate, and field-of-view. By quantitatively analyzing the signal-to-noise ratio, peak-to-standard deviation of the sidelobe level, precision, and detection probability, we show that the proposed scheme has better detection performance suitable for practical applications. To show the feasibility of the chaos lidar system, while under the constrain of eye-safe regulation, we demonstrate high-speed 3D imaging with indoor and outdoor scenes at a throughput of 100 kHz, a frame rate of 10 Hz, and a FOV of 24.5^circ times 11.5^circ for the first time.