HIGH-BANDWIDTH LASER-PULSE GENERATOR USING CONTINUOUS-WAVE LASERS

A laser-pulse generator for the transfer of continous-wave (cw) absolute radiometric calibrations to high-speed pulse photodetectors is described. The cw input lasers are modulated by a spinning polygon mirror in a ring cavity to produce high-speed, constant-amplitude, constant-shape laser pulses. Constant-amplitude outputs range temporally from cw to 15-ns full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) Gaussian pulses. An all-reflective optical design permits operation of the device from the visible to the far-infrared spectral regions. Design and performance estimates for the pulse generator as well as experimental verification are presented.