Effect of the quantum nature of detecting low-intensity radiation on the distance measurement error in pulsed laser ranging

The dispersion of estimates of the time position of low-intensity radiation pulses is studied as a function of their duration and detection parameters. Simulations showed that the error of distance measuring to an object in one ranging cycle can be 0.05–0.10 m. The method for obtaining precision estimates of a distance to objects without corner reflectors is proposed.