Photomultiplier and avalanche photodiode detection performance for LiDAR application to environment studies

We deal with two types of detectors utilized in LiDAR systems that remotely sense the environment. One is a photomultiplier, often used to detect visible light. The second is an avalanche photodiode used to sense the infrared. In this contribution, we explicitly formulate the signal-to-noise ratio and relate it to the applied polarizing voltage. Then, we show how to control the applied voltage for better performance of the detector. (C) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)