Intensity interferometry-based 3D imaging

TL;DR

This paper presents a 3D imaging technique using intensity interferometry with single-photon detectors, offering robustness and enhanced performance for applications like LIDAR, by leveraging thermal light and synchronized photon counting.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 3D imaging method based on thermal light intensity interferometry with gated SPADs, improving measurement speed and robustness over traditional approaches.

Findings

Successful imaging of a basic 3D scene within reasonable time

Enhanced 3D ranging performance using multiple light modes

Robustness to atmospheric scattering demonstrated

Abstract

The development of single-photon counting detectors and arrays has made tremendous steps in recent years, not the least because of various new applications in, e.g., LIDAR devices. In this work, a 3D imaging device based on real thermal light intensity interferometry is presented. By using gated SPAD technology, a basic 3D scene is imaged in reasonable measurement time. Compared to conventional approaches, the proposed synchronized photon counting allows using more light modes to enhance 3D ranging performance. Advantages like robustness to atmospheric scattering or autonomy by exploiting external light sources can make this ranging approach interesting for future applications.