Simulation of spaceborne 1064nm single-photon LiDAR for space target detection

Benefiting from the single-photon sensitivity, a single-photon LiDAR can implement long-range space targets detection using a low-power laser and a small-aperture transceiver by installed on a satellite or space station. In this paper, a Monte Carlo simulation model is proposed to produce single-photon echo data and analyze the parameters of a single-photon LiDAR. A 9-channel single-photon LiDAR with a wavelength of 1064nm is designed, which will not be aliased with the visible band of the targeting technology. The space target detection process was simulated by the proposed Monte Carlo model. The feasibility of LiDAR was evaluated by analyzing the receiving efficiency, the mean numbers of signal and noise photons, and the scatter point plots of signal and noise photons produced by the proposed Monte Carlo model. The simulation results show that the design parameters of the single-photon LiDAR can meet the measurement requirements of a spatial target of 3.14 m
²
in the range of 1-100 km. For close-range targets, the designed 9-channel LiDAR detects nine times more effective data than a single-channel LiDAR, which means that the real-time performance of target detection can be significantly improved. On the one hand, the theoretical model can be used to verify the feasibility of the system design, on the other hand, to provide data support for the future space target detection.