High background photon counting lidar

Abstract

Photon counting with lidar returns is usually limited to low light levels, while wide dynamic range is achieved by counting for long times. The broad emission spectrum of inexpensive high-power semiconductor lasers makes receiver filters pass too much background light for traditional photon counting in daylight. Very high speed photon counting is possible, however, at more than 500 MHz which allows the construction of eyesafe lidar operating in the presence of bright clouds. Detector improvements are possible to count to 20 GHz producing a single shot dynamic range of ten decades.