Receiver performance and detection statistics of single photon lidar

For a direct‐detection lidar, the use of single photon detector (SPD) could greatly enhance the detection sensitivity of the lidar system. The insufficient SPD in dynamic range limits its application under strong background environment. The authors use the Neyman–Pearson detection theory to analyse the detection performance of single photon lidar under strong noise environment. As a result, the detection statistics can give a basic guide principle for lidar system design. The detection performance is related to input signal‐to‐noise ratio and the number of laser pulses that are integrated over. Furthermore, they analyse the influence of the dual detector AND gate, OR gate, and SUM module on detection performance. The SUM module, namely the SPD array, has the best detection performance. Based on this, a superconducting nanowire single‐photon detector (SNSPD) array‐based lidar is employed for field measurement. The array can make a pre‐processing based on the array data in a single frame. It has a better detection performance for SNSPD array compared with that for single SNSPD.