Multi-color pulsed chaos enables single-pixel parallel laser ranging

This work has demonstrated a single-pixel architecture for parallel laser ranging based on multi-color pulsed chaos. By leveraging laser nonlinear dynamics in a fiber resonator, we focus on the NLP that exhibits inherent chaotic properties. Through the TS-DFT and discrete filtering, the NLPs can be tailored into a multi-color pattern with discrete temporal distributions. Due to the discrete nature of parallel signals in the time domain, the architecture of our parallel system is high-level simple: a single transmitter, single reference and single receiver—no demultiplexers or photodetector arrays required. Thus, the complexity of the system does not increase with the number of parallel channels, allowing the chaotic laser ranging to potentially support large-scale parallelization. Besides, in massively parallel scenarios, the chaos-endowed channel orthogonality enables our system to be immune to interference with other ambient light sources. Moreover, the high-accuracy and huge-throughput parallel ranging demonstrated in this work has proven to be an optimal framework for many other applications beyond LiDAR in self-driving, such as the detection of fast vibration signals in industrial manufacturing and the mapping of ultra-high-speed moving targets for mechanical processing. The approach also emphasizes unambiguous ranging as an important advantage in long-range detection for geo-mapping applications.

In addition to excellent performance and simple architecture, our chaotic laser ranging also features advantages in practicality and universality. The interference-free nature and weak signal detection capability enable the system to operate in complex and high device density environments. The fiber resonators are highly stable, especially when faced with vibrations and temperature variations, which makes them practical for applications. Additionally, the manner to effectively generate chaos in an energy-efficient and low-cost way supports mass production by foundries. The compact system architecture benefits multi-device deployment for more massive parallelization. Besides, the pulses that feature noise-like behavior are ubiquitous in dissipative systems, which contain many promising optical source generators. Our light source manipulation provides a universal way of generating parallel chaos without high-speed optoelectronics, which considerably accelerates the spreading of the parallel laser ranging.

Furthermore, the chaotic pulse can open the window for many potential applications beyond laser ranging where the wisdom of chaos is actively utilized. Random modulation with high repetition frequency and broad bandwidth enhances the speed and scalability of random number generators, fueling the development of cryptography, chaotic optical communications and artificial intelligence⁵¹. This multi-color pulsed chaos promises to be a desirable source in such applications, which will reshape their ecosystem.