Abstract

The purpose of this program¹ was to evaluate the performance of several candidate detectors for use as communications detectors in a 400-Mbps 1064-nm laser communication system. The detector types supplied by NASA were the RCA (Montreal) silicon avalanche photodiode with a reach through structure, the Varian LSE electrostatic photomultiplier, and the Rockwell International (Science Center) hybrid detector with gallium arsenide antimonide avalanche photodiode and integral transresistance preamplifier. Characterization testing included measurement of bit error rate performance in a 400-Mbps pulse gated binary modulation (PGBM) laser communication system test bed, a scan of cathode photoresponse uniformity, and a photograph of output waveform showing response time.

© 1976 Optical Society of America