Single photon laser ranging with no gating and nanosecond dead time by small pixel Multi-Pixel Photon Counter

Single photon laser ranging was demonstrated by using small pixel Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC) and integrated Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) technique and with no gating which is significant for ranging the target with unknown distance. Multi-target distances can be obtained within a few seconds at single photon level signal under daylight background. Thanks to the small pixel MPPC, the dead time was just a few nanoseconds, which is beneficial for reducing the ranging blind zone. The accuracy of the ranging reached sub-millimeter at a several-meter distance.