Lidar with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors: Recent advances and developments

Abstract

Lidar has already achieved long-distance and high-accuracy detection due to the improved sensitivity and timing accuracy of single-photon detectors (SPDs). However, single-photon Lidar systems based on semiconductor detectors are usually susceptible to dark counts and afterpulsing. Recently, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have shown promise toward single-photon Lidar systems owing to their high detection efficiency, high maximum count rate, low dark count rate and low timing jitter. An in-depth understanding of SNSPD Lidar can promote its further rational development and application. This article reviews the advantages of SNSPDs in single-photon Lidar systems and corresponding developments and introduces and prospects its related applications. In the future, the development of SNSPD working bands and array sizes may promote the next generation of single-photon Lidar systems with a longer detection range, higher depth accuracy and shorter acquisition time.