All-Optical Code-Division Multiple Access LiDAR for Large Nonambiguous Range and High Point Acquisition Rate via Time-Stretching

Abstract

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) have become a key enabling technology for autonomous driving and intelligent manufacturing. Conventional pulsed time-of-flight LiDAR suffers from an inherent trade-off between point acquisition rate (PAR) and nonambiguous range, which cannot satisfy the demands of long-distance high-speed outdoor 3D perception simultaneously. This work presents an all-optical optical code-division multiple access LiDAR assisted by time stretching, which alleviates the performance conflict of two core indicators by optimizing the allocation of wavelength-domain coding resources. The system achieves a 55.6 m ambiguity-free detection range and a PAR of 13.46 MHz simultaneously. Outdoor measurements maintain stable millimeter-level ranging precision with negligible interchannel crosstalk. Hybrid two-dimensional beam scanning realizes high-fidelity static 3D reconstruction of multidepth targets, and dynamic imaging at 901 FPS enables precise tracking of fast rotating objects. It delivers a much better overall performance than reported single-detector LiDARs. Abundant idle time slots support further performance upgrading, and the all-optical layout is inherently compatible with photonic integration, offering a high-performance integrated solution for outdoor, long-range, high-speed 3D perception.