Mid-infrared high-resolution photon-counting LiDAR
Mid-infrared (MIR) detection at the single-photon limit has become increasingly accessible, enabling applications in free-space communications, industrial sensing, astronomy, and biomedicine. However, direct time-correlated single photon-counting in the MIR remains a significant challenge. Here, we demonstrate single-pixel scanning light detection and ranging (LiDAR) at 3500 nm wavelength with sub-millimeter depth resolution in the single-photon regime, enabled by a differential impedance-matched tungsten silicide (WSi) superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD), optimized for MIR detection, and an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser source. The detector’s exceptional timing performance is demonstrated by resolving sub-millimeter depth features of a target positioned 100 mm from the transceiver. In addition, we present the wavelength-dependent photoresponse and timing jitter of the device across a 1550–5438 nm wavelength range. The photon-counting MIR LiDAR system shown features extremely wide broadband operation, high timing performance, and single-photon sensitivity. This work demonstrates the potential of MIR time-correlated single photon-counting applications enabled by SNSPDs.
2-s2.0-105019249412
University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
California Institute of Technology
2025-11-03
33
22
45684
45694
REVIEWED
EPFL
| Funder | Funding(s) | Grant Number | Grant URL |
National Research Foundation of Korea | |||
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |||
DARPA | |||
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