A Pulsed Lidar System With Ultimate Quantum Range Accuracy

A light detection and ranging (lidar) system using a multi-output quantum pulse gate (mQPG) for quantum uncertainty limited range resolution is presented. Due to the inherent phase-sensitivity of the process, the proposed mQPG enhanced lidar system is able to beat the theoretical Rayleigh range resolution limit and the single detection Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) of classic pulsed lidar. To achieve this behavior, gating pulses interact with the backscattered lidar pulse while propagating through the optically non linear waveguide within the mQPG. The intensity of the discrete spectral channels of the mQPG contains finally the target distance informations. The mQPG was fabricated in a periodically poled (PP) titaniumindiffused lithium niobate waveguide and the entire system was built up in a lab environment. Measurement up to 1500 mu m were performed around an arbitrary set reference point, and show excellent agreement with the theory up to 600 mu m for a pulse length of 1.56ps, and up to 1100 mu m for a pulse length of 2.12ps.