Single-shot double-pulse range-gated 3D imaging

Range-gated imaging has the advantages of long imaging distance, high signal-to-noise ratio, and good environmental adaptability.However, conventional range-gated imaging utilizes a single laser pulse illumination modality, which can only resolve a single depth of ranging in one shot.Three-dimensional (3D) imaging has to be obtained from multiple shots, which limits its real-time performance.Here, an approach of range-gated imaging using a specific double-pulse sequence is proposed to overcome this limitation.With the help of a calibrated double-pulse range-intensity profile, the depth of static targets can be calculated from the measurement of a single shot.Moreover, the double-pulse approach is beneficial for real-time depth estimation of dynamic targets.Experimental results indicate that, compared to the conventional approach, the depth of field and depth resolution are increased by 1.36 and 2.20 times, respectively.It is believed that the proposed double-pulse approach provides a potential new paradigm for range-gated 3D imaging.