High-resolution mid-infrared single-photon upconversion ranging
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917533597040640 |
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| author | Jiang, Shuhong Huang, Kun Yu, Tingting Fang, Jianan Sun, Ben Liang, Yan Hao, Qiang Wu, E Yan, Ming Zeng, Heping |
| author_facet | Jiang, Shuhong Huang, Kun Yu, Tingting Fang, Jianan Sun, Ben Liang, Yan Hao, Qiang Wu, E Yan, Ming Zeng, Heping |
| contents | Single-photon laser ranging has widespread applications in remote sensing and target recognition. However, highly-sensitive light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has long been restricted in visible or near-infrared bands. An appealing quest is to extend the operation wavelength into the mid-infrared (MIR) region, which calls for an infrared photon counting system at high detection sensitivity and precise temporal resolution. Here, we devise and demonstrate a MIR upconversion LiDAR based on nonlinear asynchronous optical sampling. Specifically, the infrared probe is interrogated in a nonlinear crystal by a train of pump pulses at a slightly different repetition rate, which favors for a temporal optical scanning at a picosecond timing resolution and a kilohertz refreshing rate over $\sim$50 ns. Moreover, the cross-correlation upconversion trace is temporally stretched by a factor of 2$\times$10$^4$, which can thus be recorded by a low-bandwidth silicon detector. In combination with time-correlated photon-counting technique, the achieved effective resolution is about two orders of magnitude better than the timing jitter of the detector itself, which facilitates a ranging precision of 4 $μ$m under a low detected flux of 8$\times$10$^{-5}$ photons per pulse. The presented MIR time-of-flight range finder is featured with single-photon sensitivity and high positioning resolution, which would be particularly useful in infrared sensing and imaging in photon-starved scenarios. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_26455 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | High-resolution mid-infrared single-photon upconversion ranging Jiang, Shuhong Huang, Kun Yu, Tingting Fang, Jianan Sun, Ben Liang, Yan Hao, Qiang Wu, E Yan, Ming Zeng, Heping Optics Single-photon laser ranging has widespread applications in remote sensing and target recognition. However, highly-sensitive light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has long been restricted in visible or near-infrared bands. An appealing quest is to extend the operation wavelength into the mid-infrared (MIR) region, which calls for an infrared photon counting system at high detection sensitivity and precise temporal resolution. Here, we devise and demonstrate a MIR upconversion LiDAR based on nonlinear asynchronous optical sampling. Specifically, the infrared probe is interrogated in a nonlinear crystal by a train of pump pulses at a slightly different repetition rate, which favors for a temporal optical scanning at a picosecond timing resolution and a kilohertz refreshing rate over $\sim$50 ns. Moreover, the cross-correlation upconversion trace is temporally stretched by a factor of 2$\times$10$^4$, which can thus be recorded by a low-bandwidth silicon detector. In combination with time-correlated photon-counting technique, the achieved effective resolution is about two orders of magnitude better than the timing jitter of the detector itself, which facilitates a ranging precision of 4 $μ$m under a low detected flux of 8$\times$10$^{-5}$ photons per pulse. The presented MIR time-of-flight range finder is featured with single-photon sensitivity and high positioning resolution, which would be particularly useful in infrared sensing and imaging in photon-starved scenarios. |
| title | High-resolution mid-infrared single-photon upconversion ranging |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.26455 |