Optical attenuator for Geiger mode avalanche photodiode laser detection systems

This paper presents a method to estimate the optical attenuator according to the false firing percentage of Geiger Mode Avalanche Photodiode array detection system only under background light. The effect of the dark current and the gate setting are discussed. The efficiency of the Geiger mode avalanche photodiode detection system is improved by the optical attenuator by simulation analysis, that the false probability is reduced in all cases, and the detection probability increases accorindgly when the signal is larger than the total noise. Finally, the imaging simulation experiments show that the average ranging accuracy increase by using optical attenuator.