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Photonics
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Advances in Photon-Counting Imaging and Sensing
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Advances in Photon-Counting Imaging and Sensing

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Quantum Photonics and Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 17 October 2026 | Viewed by 193

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yan Kang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710119, China
Interests: single-photon imaging and sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Zhe Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Artificial Intelligence, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Interests: optical imaging; ghost imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yunkun Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Optics and Photonics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: single-photon detection technology and applications; laser sensing and measurement

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Imaging and sensing technologies based on single-photon detection, such as 3D imaging, ranging, velocity and vibration measurement, are rapidly developing. Compared with traditional laser imaging and sensing methods, single-photon level detection sensitivity brings technological improvements in various aspects, but it also faces new challenges.

This Special Issue explores recent advances in photon-counting imaging and sensing, including, but not limited to, new research findings on imaging, ranging and velocity measurement based on single-photon detection, quantum imaging, laser sensing and measurement.

Dr. Yan Kang
Dr. Zhe Sun
Dr. Yunkun Zhao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • single-photon detectors
  • 3D imaging and sensing
  • photon counting
  • time-correlated single-photon counting
  • quantum imaging and ghost imaging

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3275 KB  
Article
3D Reconstruction Method for GM-APD Array LiDAR Based on Intensity Image Guidance
by Ye Liu, Kehao Chi, Ruikai Xue and Genghua Huang
Photonics 2026, 13(4), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13040323 - 26 Mar 2026
Abstract
Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GM-APD) array light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has significant advantages in low-light scenes due to its single-photon-level detection sensitivity. However, it is susceptible to noise, which leads to a decrease in target localization accuracy. Traditional methods rely on long-term accumulation [...] Read more.
Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GM-APD) array light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has significant advantages in low-light scenes due to its single-photon-level detection sensitivity. However, it is susceptible to noise, which leads to a decrease in target localization accuracy. Traditional methods rely on long-term accumulation to distinguish signal photons from noise photons, making it difficult to achieve efficient processing, especially in scenarios with sparse echo photons and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), where performance is limited. To quickly and accurately obtain three-dimensional (3D) information of the target under such extreme conditions, this paper proposes a method for target detection and temporal window depth estimation based on intensity information guidance. First, noise suppression is performed on the intensity image according to its statistical characteristics, and an outlier detection mechanism based on neighborhood sparsity is introduced to remove outliers, thereby completing the target detection. Next, by exploiting the spatial continuity and reflectivity similarity of the target, local fusion of photon data within the target neighborhood is performed to construct highly consistent “superpixels”. Finally, according to the distribution difference between signal photons and noise photons on the time axis, temporal window screening is applied to the superpixels to extract depth information, and empty pixels are filled using a convex segmentation method to achieve depth estimation of the target. The experimental results demonstrate that under conditions of low photon counts and strong noise, the proposed method significantly outperforms traditional and existing methods in target recovery and depth estimation by effectively integrating target intensity information. Furthermore, this method achieves faster reconstruction speed, enabling high-precision and high-efficiency 3D target reconstruction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photon-Counting Imaging and Sensing)
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