Photodetectors claim new speed records

Newport has expanded its range of high-speed photodetectors andnow claims to offer the industry's widest and mostcomprehensive selection of fully packaged devices.

Based onInGaAs, GaAs and silicon, these photodetectors provide spectralresponse from the visible to the near-infra-red (from 400 to1700nm).

The new additions deliver significant performance/priceadvances at 10GHz, a wider selection of picosecond products, theworld's fastest commercial visible detector (7ps), and anovel, flexible detector package with 1MHz response thatincorporates both tunable gain and filters.

These photodetectorsare targeted at R and D laboratory applications in laser-basedresearch as well applications in test and measurement, andtelecomms development, where their integrated packaging providessimple, turnkey operation.

This operational simplicity is furtherenhanced with the option of either free-space or fibre-coupledinputs and the choice of either high- or low-impedancetermination.

Specific applications of these detectors includetemporal profiling of nanosecond lasers and monitoring chirpedamplification of ultrafast laser pulses.

Standout new productsinclude: additions to the 818-BB series of biased photodetectorsthat provide low-cost solutions for applications requiring a10GHz bandwidth; the novel 818-GF photodetector that incorporatesvariable gain and fully adjustable low and high frequency filters(up to 1MHz); the record setting PX-D7 - claimed to be thefastest available visible detector, with a response time of only7ps, representing a frequency response of 60 GHz.