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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Optics and Photonics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1544914
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in High-Power Lasers for Interdisciplinary Applications, Volume II View all 5 articles

Single-photon imaging for 3D reflectivity and depth estimation in low-light conditions

Provisionally accepted
Yi Chen Yi Chen *Yan Shi Yan Shi *
  • China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Three-dimensional active imaging systems operating in photon-starved regimes have broad applications, including remote sensing, autonomous navigation, and military surveillance. In this study, we present a noncoaxial scanning imaging system capable of generating high-quality depth and reflectivity images with an average of only ~1 detected photon per pixel, leveraging a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector. The accompanying depth retrieval algorithm integrates an l1-norm regularizer and operates without requiring prior knowledge of the number of targets in the scene. This design significantly enhances the algorithm's robustness and reliability for practical applications. Experimental results validate the proposed algorithm's effectiveness, underscoring its potential for advancing three-dimensional active imaging under photon-starved conditions.

    Keywords: lidar, 3D imaging, SPAD detector, TCSPC, TOF

    Received: 13 Dec 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yi Chen, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China
    Yan Shi, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.