Single-photon light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has played an important role in areas ranging from target identification and 3D imaging to remote sensing. Its high sensitivity provides the feasibility of lightweight LiDAR systems for the resource-limited airborne and spaceborne platforms. Here, we design and demonstrate an airborne single-photon LiDAR towards the compact, small-sized, and low-power payload. To reduce the system size, we utilize small telescopes with an optical aperture of 47 mm and develop the sub-pixel scanning approach to enhance the imaging resolution. With the fine scanning mirrors, we validate the super-resolution ability in the ground experiment by surpassing the system’s resolution by 2.5 times and achieve high-resolution 3D imaging in the airborne experiment. To realize low-power LiDAR, we employ photon-efficient computational algorithms and high-quality single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays. This enables us to reconstruct images from noisy data even under challenging conditions of two signal photons per pixel. Using the airborne single-photon LiDAR system, we demonstrate 3D imaging during daytime over a large area for remote sensing applications and show the capability to reveal the detailed features of various landforms and objects.

中文翻译：

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面向小尺寸、低功率有效载荷的机载单光子激光雷达

单光子光探测和测距 (LiDAR) 在目标识别、3D 成像和遥感等领域发挥着重要作用。其高灵敏度为资源有限的机载和星载平台提供了轻型激光雷达系统的可行性。在这里，我们设计并演示了一种面向紧凑、小尺寸和低功耗有效载荷的机载单光子激光雷达。为了减小系统尺寸，我们采用光学孔径为47毫米的小型望远镜，并开发了亚像素扫描方法来提高成像分辨率。利用精细扫描镜，我们在地面实验中验证了超分辨能力，超出系统分辨率2.5倍，并在机载实验中实现了高分辨率3D成像。为了实现低功耗激光雷达，我们采用光子高效计算算法和高质量单光子雪崩二极管（SPAD）阵列。这使我们能够从噪声数据中重建图像，即使在每个像素有两个信号光子的挑战性条件下也是如此。使用机载单光子激光雷达系统，我们演示了白天大面积的 3D 成像，用于遥感应用，并展示了揭示各种地形和物体的详细特征的能力。