Introduction to satellite laser ranging and why we use gated single-photon counting

Kurzfassung

The talk describes details of the timing system of DLR's satellite laser ranging station the miniSLR. The timing system uses several hardware components, e.g. a GPS synchronized clock, an event timer for range measurements and two pulse generators to gate the single-photon detector. The interplay between these devices allows for successful laser ranging to satellites equipped with retroreflectors with millimeter precision.