Low intensity LiDAR using compressed sensing and a photon number resolving detector

LiDAR laser based radar systems are a major part of many new real world interactive systems one of the most notable being autonomous cars The current market LiDAR systems are limited by detector sensitivity: when output power is at eye safe levels the range is limited Long range operation also slows image acquisition as fight time increases We present an approach that combines a high sensitivity photon number resolving diode with an efficient data acquisition protocol and a micro mechanical digital mirror device to achieve safe and fast long range 3D scanning